I 


BV  10  .H85  1911  c.l 

Hoyt,  Arthur  Stephen,  1851 

1924. 
Public  worship  for  non- 

liturQical  churches 


Cj^ 


n 


V 


PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

FOR  NONLITURGICAL 

CHURCHES 


JAN  30  1912 


BY 


ARTHUR  S.  HOYT,  D.  D. 


PROFESSOR  OF  HOMILETICS  AND  SOCIOLOGY  IN  ' 
AUBURN  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

AUTHOR  OF  "  THE  WORK  OF  PREACHING" 
AND  "  THE  PREACHER  " 


HODDER  &  STOUGHTON 

NEW  YORK 

GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


Copyright,  1911, 
By  George  H.  Doran  Company 


Worship 


To 

Charles  Frederick  Goss 
Playmate^  Chum,  Friend 


PREFACE 

The  book  has  not  been  made:  it  has  grown, 
and  so  it  is  sent  forth  in  the  hope  of  life. 

It  has  grown  from  the  writer's  own  need,  in 
the  effort  to  seek  guidance  and  inspiration  in  the 
most  important  and  difficult  ministry  to  other 
lives. 

It  has  grown  from  the  attempts  to  help  young 
men  weigh  the  meaning  of  words  and  acts  of 
worship;  to  interpret  aright  the  difficulty  and 
the  dignity  and  the  worth  of  their  spiritual 
leadership. 

It  has  grown  from  an  increasing  sense  of  the 
need  of  the  age  to  deepen  its  devotional  life,  to 
be  cured  of  glibness  and  flippancy,  to  be  taught 
how  to  reverence  and  adore  and  praise. 

There  are  many  admirable  books  on  the  special 
phrases  or  parts  of  worship;  there  are  almost 
none  on  worship  as  a  whole,  viewed  in  the  light 
of  present  conditions  and  with  practical  sug- 
gestions for  its  conduct  and  development. 

And  so  the  book  is  sent  forth  in  the  hope  that 
it  may  serve  the  ministry  of  the  non- litur- 
gical churches,  especially  the  young  men  who 
stand  upon  the  threshold  of  their  work  with  such 
trembling  and  yet  with  such  praise. 

Auburn,  N.  Y. 

June,  1911 


CONTENTS 

LECTURE  PAGE 

I.    Worship  in  Religion  and  Life    .  1 

II.    The  Form  of  Worship      ....  17 

III.  Doctrine  and  Worship     ....  33 

IV.  Liturgical  or  Free  Worship    .    .  49 

V.    Public  Prayer 71 

VI.    The     Preparation    for     Public 

Prayer 93 

VII.    The  Use  of  Scripture  in  Worship  105 

VIII.    The  Worship  of  Sacred  Song  .    .  119 

IX.    The  Development  of  Free  Wor- 
ship      141 


Public  Worship 


LECTURE  I 
WORSHIP  IN  RELIGION  AND  LIFE 


OUTLINE 

Reason  for  Worship 
The  fact  of  God. 
The  religious  nature  of  man. 
The  social  nature  of  man. 
The  example  and  teaching  of  Christ. 

Neglect  of  Worship 
The  materialistic  spirit. 
The  critical  spirit. 
The  extreme  individualism. 
The  broader  conception  of  religion. 

The  Influence  of  Worship 
The    witness    and    proclamation    of    the  Gospel. 
Promotes  and  conserves  the  rehgious  life. 
Forms  the  higher  life,  personal  and  social. 

Conclusion 
The  responsibility  of  the  Ministry  as   leaders  of 
worship. 


WORSHIP  IN  RELIGION  AND  LIFE 

The  churches  of  the  Reformed  and  Con- 
gregational order  in  America  have  always  exalted 
the  pulpit  in  the  service  of  the  house  of  God. 
The  weekly  sermons  have  been  the  attraction 
for  the  people,  the  strength  and  comfort  of  their 
lives.  The  church  buildings  have  been  con- 
structed for  the  purpose  of  public  instruction, 
the  acoustic  qualities  governing  the  artistic  form. 
The  training  of  the  ministry  has  had  the  work 
of  preaching  clearly  and  chiefly  in  view.  The 
lines  of  ministerial  toil  have  converged  upon  the 
pulpit.  These  churches  have  been  noted  among 
their  sister  churches  for  an  educated  ministry 
and  for  the  attractiveness  and  efficiency  of 
their  pulpit  work.  The  training  has  not  been 
too  severe  and  the  sermons  never  too  good. 
But  it  is  certainly  a  fair  question  to  ask  — 
whether  the  non-liturgical  churches,  in  mag- 
nifying^the  pulpit,  have  not  too  often  minimized 
the  importance  of  worship. 
3 


4  Public  Worship 

The  saying  of  Pastor  Harms  of  Germany  that 
"Preaching  is  only  an  accidental  adjunct  of 
worship"  has  never  been  admitted  by  the  non- 
Episcopal  churches  of  this  country  and  is  felt 
by  us  to  be  hostile  to  spiritual  life.  Neither  is 
it  a  sound  view  to  speak  of  worship  as  "the  mere 
concomitant  of  preaching,"  to  use  a  phrase  from 
a  recent  writer  on  homiletics. 

It  is  certainly  important  for  us  to  have  definite 
views  of  the  nature  of  worship,  of  its  need  and 
use  in  the  higher  life  of  man. 

The  Reason  for  Worship.  —  We  begin 
with  the  fact  of  God.  As  for  ourselves, 
the  world  cannot  be  understood  without  God. 
And  human  life  cannot  be  understood  without 
God.  We  say  with  the  author  of  "The  Right 
to  Believe":  "The  best  men  through  the  ages 
have  been  convinced  that  there  was  a  God,  or 
have  been  profoundly  unhappy  because  they 
were  not  so  convinced.  The  best  moments  of  our 
life  are  when  we  consider  His  existence  the  most 
probable,  and  we  have  the  witness  of  the  higher 
moments  of  others  as  well  as  of  ourselves. 

"Man  as  a  whole  is  to  be  trusted.  If  a  man 
is  just,  can  he  not  be  trusted  to  live  by  his  larger 
faith,  and  not  by  a  foolish  or  fragmentary  one? 
If  the  body  of  just  men  as  a  whole  has  united  in 


Worship  in  Religion  and  Life  5 

one  great  hope,  that  of  itself  puts  it  beyond  the 
range  of  the  foolish  or  the  irrational.  The  world 
as  a  whole  knows  what  it  wants."     (P.  54.) 

The  religious  nature  of  man  is  the  comple- 
ment of  the  fact  of  God.  Before  the  mystery 
of  the  universe  and  of  life  —  man  has  the  sense 
of  wonder  and  awe  —  the  beginnings  of  rever- 
ence and  adoration.  It  is  deepened  by  the 
sense  of  dependence  upon  forces  beyond  and 
mightier  than  self.  Man  stands  in  humility 
before  a  power  he  cannot  attain  or  comprehend. 
And  when  that  power  takes  the  conception  of 
the  personal  God,  Creator,  Ruler,  Helper,  and 
the  kinship  between  God  and  man  is  recognized, 
reverence  and  humility  inevitably  grow  into 
communion  and   aspiration. 

Worship  rises  from  the  very  nature  of  man 
as  a  religious  being.  It  springs  from  the  very 
constitution  of  the  human  soul.  It  is  not  merely 
a  peculiar  sensation  or  state  of  emotion,  a  non- 
intellectual  condition,  but  a  frame  of  mind  and 
a  direct  act  of  the  will.  It  is  the  expression  of 
personal  fellowship  with  God.  "Religion  em- 
braces the  whole  life  of  a  man  in  personal 
communion  with  God.  Worship  is  the  outer 
expression  of  this  life  in  some  sacred  and  solemn 
form."  The  religious  nature  of  man  is  seen 
in    the   history   of  worship.      Men  may  grope 


6  Public  Worship 

in  the  twilight,  they  may  wander  ceaselessly, 
but  they  cannot  wholly  forget  the  fact  of  the 
vital  relation  to  God.  Nature  may  do  all  she 
can  to  make  her  foster  child  forget  the  glories 
he  hath  known.  The  earth  may  furnish  all 
things  beautiful  in  their  season,  but  "eternity 
is  in  man's  heart."  And  whether  prompted 
by  rational  knowledge  and  grateful  love,  or 
superstitious  and  slavish  fear,  the  impulse  to 
adoration  rises  almost  universally.  In  igno-'V-^ 
ranee  of  their  own  nature  men  may  say  "There 
is  no  God,"  but  moments  of  sharp  pain  or  con- 
test will  bring  out,  like  chemicals  upon  an  old 
palimpsest,  the  handwriting  of  God.  The 
primal,  universal  nature  of  man  is  finely  ex- 
pressed in  the  verse  of  Mrs.  Browning,  "The  Cry 
of  the  Human!" 

"There  is  no  God  the  foolish  saith, 

But  none  there  is  no  sorrow. 
And  Nature  oft  the  cry  of  faith 

In  bitter  need  will  borrow; 
Eyes  which  the  preacher  could  not  school. 

By  wayside  graves  are  raised; 
And  Hps  say,  'God  be  pitiful,' 

Who  ne'er  said,  'God  be  praised.' " 

Worship  then  is  rational  and  inevitable;  it 
is  born  of  the  nature  and  needs  of  the  human 
soul. 


Worship  in  Religion  and  Life  7 

Furthermore  man  is  a  social  being  and  he 
cannot  be  satisfied  with  the  solitary  worship  of 
God.  Each  life  is  found  in  relationships  and  is 
trained  and  used  by  these  social  bonds.  "A 
man  alone  is  no  man."  He  is  the  member  of  a 
family,  a  society,  a  community.  For  his  highest 
joys,  he  seeks  fellowship.  Charles  Kingsley 
tells  of  the  demand  for  fellowship  in  the  sense 
of  beauty.  He  stood  before  a  window  of  the 
Strand  in  London  filled  with  birds  from  the 
Brazilian  forests,  wondering  at  the  prodigality 
of  God  in  thus  creating  millions  of  beautiful 
creatures  with  no  human  eye  to  see.  He  in- 
stinctively turned  to  share  his  joy  of  beauty 
with  another,  and  met  the  gaze  of  a  grimy  stoker 
filled  vfith  like  joy  and  wonder.  It  is  true  of 
all  the  joys  that  come  from  the  deep  experiences 
of  the  soul.  Bunyan  wished  the  very  birds 
and  flowers  to  know  of  his  new  peace. 

The  deepest  convictions  and  desires  of  men 
seek  united  expression.  Life  seems  larger, 
freer,  more  sensitive  and  aspiring  when  con- 
scious of  social  relations.  Common  hopes  and 
fears  are  strengthened  and  made  dominant  when 
they  find  common  choice.  This  is  the  law  of 
social  worship.  And  so  we  have  public  and 
social  worship,  false  or  true,  the  condition 
expressed  in  the  well-known  words  of  Plutarch: 


8  Public  Worship 

"You  will  perchance  light  upon  cities  without 
gates,  without  a  theatre,  and  without  a  palace; 
but  you  will  find  no  city  without  a  temple." 

Christian  worship  springs  from  the  same 
ground,  the  religious  and  social  nature  of  man. 
Christianity  elevates  and  sanctifies  human  wor- 
ship. God's  command  has  its  reason  in  our 
nature:  Christ's  invitation  is  the  divine  answer 
to  our  need. 

The  divine  law  of  worship  written  on  the  very 
heart  of  man  gets  its  strongest  assertion  and 
authority  in  the  example  and  teaching  of  Christ. 
He  fulfilled  all  law.  The  temple  was  His  Father's 
house.  The  supreme  example  of  private  prayer, 
he  failed  not  to  observe  the  public  worship  of 
His  people,  however  formal  and  imperfect  it 
might  be.  He  ever  taught  that  spirit  was  more , 
than  form,  but  never  that  worship  should  be 
formless.  Fearless,  independent,  spiritual,  He 
laid  emphasis  upon  two  social  rites  of  the  King- 
dom, baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper,  the  germs 
of  public.  Christian  worship.  These  public, 
social  forms  gain  increased  authority  from  the 
personal,  spiritual  character  of  His  teaching. 
So  anxious  does  Christ  seem  that  His  friends 
should  maintain  the  simple  form  of  social  worship 
that  after  His  resurrection  He  made  Himself 
known  in  the  breaking  of  bread  and  years  after 


Worship  in  Religion  and  Life  9 

gave  special  revelation  and  command  to  St. 
Paul.  The  Apostolic  Church  knew  the  mind  of 
Christ  as  to  worship.  The  instincts  of  faith, 
the  law  of  the  new  life,  the  demand  upon  the 
new  society,  brought  groups  of  Christians  to- 
gether at  stated  times  for  worship  and  instruction. 
It  was  the  need  and  law  of  the  new  religion. 
"Let  the  word  of  Christ  dwell  in  you  richly  in 
all  wisdom;  teaching  and  admonishing  one 
another  with  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual 
songs,  singing  with  grace  in  your  hearts  unto 
God."  (Col.  3  :  16.)  Public  worship  has  marked 
every  form  and  age  of  the  Christian  Church 
and  has  been  held  essential  to  the  preservation 
and  growth  of  the  religious  life. 

The  Neglect  of  Public  Worship.  —  Why 
is  public  worship  lightly  considered  or  widely 
neglected?  It  requires  no  prophet's  eye  to 
see  the  fact.  Multitudes,  not  irreligious,  do 
not  feel  the  obligation  and  privilege  of  public 
worship.  And  members  of  churches  often  hold 
their  vows  lightly. 

Let  us  acknowledge  the  defects  of  our  public 
worship:  prayers  that  do  not  voice  the  deepest 
needs  of  men  and  worthy  conceptions  of  God, 
praises  that  have  the  spirit  of  the  concert  hall 
and   not   aspirations   after   God,   sermons   that 


10  Public  Worship 

fail  of  the  sense  and  authority  of  message.  If 
our  worship  could  be  worthy,  it  would  make  a 
stronger  call  to  men  and  more  would  respond 
to  it. 

But  the  spirit  of  our  age,  especially  its  Amer- 
ican form,  is  not  helpful  to  worship. 

The  passion  for  life,  seen  in  work  and  play,  is 
the  chief  obstacle.  Business  and  industry  make 
increasing  inroads  upon  the  Sunday  and  so 
exhaust  life  that  rest  and  recreation  seem  the 
first  demand  of  the  day  to  the  ignoring  of  the 
religious   nature. 

The  increased  interest  in  the  earthly  life,  the 
rapidly  multiplied  means  and  ways  of  pleasure, 
have  given  a  fascination  to  sport  and  recreation 
that  for  the  time  eclipses  the  glory  of  religion. 
The  extreme  individualism  of  the  American 
spirit  tends  in  the  same  way.  Personal  taste 
and  inclination  ignore  custom  however  good  and 
ancient.  Men  are  narrow  and  provincial  in 
their  individualism,  looking  only  at  one  side  of 
life  and  forgetting  the  whole  life,  and  not  able 
to  rise  out  of  themselves  into  the  social  good. 

Then  a  smaller  number  are  affected  by  the 
critical  spirit  that  questions  religious  claims 
and,  so,  forms  of  worship.  In  older  lands  there 
are  positivists  who  believe  in  maintaining  the 
Church  as  the  support  of  the  State.     But  in 


Worship  in  Religion  and  Life  11 

the  democratic  society  of  America,  the  question- 
ing minds  will  make  feeble  and  fickle  contribution 
to  worship.  The  offices  of  religion  present  diffi- 
culties that  will  only  be  met  by  a  genuine  faith. 
There  is  a  far  more  subtle  and  pervasive  foe 
to  regular  worship  in  the  broadening  conception 
of  religion.  It  has  a  noble  side  and  it  makes  a 
strong  appeal  to  people  of  feeling  and  imagina- 
tion. I  shall  let  another  express  it:  "When  Charles 
Kingsley  uttered  that  most  virile  and  suggestive 
sentence,  'Worship  is  a  life,  not  a  ceremony,' 
he  conceived  of  worship  as  a  permanent  state 
of  consciousness.  Such  does  it  become  to  the 
soul  thoroughly  alive  unto  God;  a  life,  not  a 
ceremony.  The  operations  of  the  God  ward 
sense  cannot  in  such  a  life  be  limited  to  the  pre- 
scribed functions  of  certain  days  and  of  certain 
places.  Love,  casting  out  fear,  beholds  God  in 
the  face  of  Christ,  glorifying  all  life,  and  co- 
ordinating in  the  unity  of  the  spirit  and  in  the 
bond  of  peace  all  ties,  places,  duties,  and  rela- 
tionships. The  knowledge  of  redemption  sheds 
upon  life  an  almost  eucharistic  gladness.  Prayer 
verges  toward  companionship,  and  the  humble 
things  that  grow  by  the  wayside  gleam  with 
the  unconsuming  fire  of  new  and  nobler  mean- 
ings. Worship  becomes  a  permanent  state  of 
consciousness."  ("Worship,'*  p.  5.) 


12  Public  Worship 

No  doubt  an  increasing  number  of  lives  realize 
this.  The  description  of  the  New  Jerusalem 
reads,  "And  there  shall  be  no  temple  there."  And 
lives  may  reach  that  point  of  vision  and  feeling 
where  they  do  not  seem  to  need  the  imperfect 
forms  of  the  Church.  But  even  such  lives  can 
never  get  beyond  the  social  bond,  the  need  of 
their  fellows.  And  any  conception  or  attain- 
ment of  life  may  be  questioned  that  rises  superior 
to  the  common  need.  The  spiritual  life  can 
never  be  a  "lordly  pleasure  house"  for  the  soul's 
satisfaction.  And  practically  it  is  found  that 
where  men  make  the  spiritualizing  of  all  life 
as  their  reason  for  ignoring  the  sacredness  of  the 
Sabbath  and  the  obligation  of  public  worship, 
they  are  really  the  successors  of  the  idolaters 
satirized  by  Isaiah.  They  use  life  to  satisfy 
their  earthly  wants  and  tastes,  they  cook  their 
food  and  warm  their  bodies,  and  the  small  re- 
mainder they  devote  to  religion. 

"That  worship  may  be  a  life,  not  a  mere 
ceremony,  does  not  invalidate  the  thought  of 
times  when  the  individual  consciousness  is  moved 
to  seek  formal  and  concrete  expression  of  its 
emotions  toward  God.  In  this  worship  and  love 
are  alike.  Love  may  be  a  life,  involving  the 
entirety  of  a  man's  being,  and  sweeping  like  a 
tide  *too  full  for  sound  or  foam'  beneath  all  his 


Worship  in  Religion  and  Life  13 

thoughts;  but  love  has  its  times  of  demonstration, 
its  resistless  moments  of  the  heart's  outpouring, 
its  sacramental  hours  and  deeds  wherein  the 
inward  passion  fulfils  itself  in  outward  and 
visible  signs.  The  heart  of  Christ  was  a  shrine 
of  perpetual  worship.  Yet  Christ  knew  and 
obeyed  that  psychic  law  which  accentuates  the 
devout  life  with  occasions  of  formal  and  concrete 
expression.  Therefore  we  speak  of  worship  as 
the  expression  of  the  devout  life,  when  in  the 
solitude  of  the  closet,  or  in  the  companionable 
loneliness  of  Nature,  or  at  the  family  altar,  or 
in  the  house  of  prayer,  the  heart  which  believes 
that  God  is,  and  that  He  is  the  rewarder  of  them 
that  diligently  seek  Him,  pours  itself  forth  before 
Him  with  the  consent  of  the  will  and  the  eagerness 
of  the  affections."     ("Worship,"  p.  6.) 

The  Influence  of  Worship.  —  Public  wor- 
ship is  the  witness  of  the  Church  to  the  truth 
of  Christianity.  Christ  said  of  the  Sacra- 
ment of  His  table,  "As  oft  as  ye  eat  this 
bread  and  drink  this  cup  ye  do  show  the  Lord's 
death  till  He  come."  It  is  the  most  simple  and 
eloquent  witness  to  the  entire  truth  of  the 
Gospel.  Every  church  spire  that  points  heaven- 
ward, every  bell  that  calls  to  prayer,  every  lifting 
of  hands  of  imperfect  faith,  is  a  testimony  to  the 


14  Public  Worship 

generation  of  the  supreme  fact  of  the  religious 
life  and  of  the  supreme  revelation  of  Christ. 
And  in  this  time  of  transition,  when  the  bonds 
of  social  and  religious  habit  are  loosened  by  the 
incoming  of  new  peoples,  new  customs,  new 
ideas,  it  is  all  important  that  the  Church  hold 
fast  the  testimony  of  Jesus.  No  matter  how 
large  or  small  the  congregations,  public  worship 
should  be  maintained  with  consistent  devotion. 

This  function  of  the  Church  is  likewise  con- 
nected with  the  proclamation  of  the  Gospel  and 
the  extension  of  the  Christian  life.  Gratefully 
acknowledging  all  the  new  providential  forms 
by  which  truth  and  life  are  propagated,  public 
worship  is  the  chief  occasion  and  the  generator 
of  the  chief  power.  The  body  of  believers  met 
for  worship,  the  visible  unity  of  faith,  furnishes 
the  chosen  atmosphere  for  the  hearing  and 
receiving  of  the  truth,  and  in  this  atmosphere 
are  formed  the  plans  and  quickened  the  spirit 
that  makes  the  Church  a  missionary  force  to  all 
the  nations. 

Public  worship  educates  and  conserves  the 
higher  life  of  the  individual  and  of  society. 

It  keeps  alive  the  thought  of  God.  It  cul- 
tivates the  spirit  of  reverence.  It  helps  to 
make  character  supreme  over  circumstances.  It 
tends  to  maintain  the  worth  and  dignity  of  the 


Worship  in  Religion  and  Life  15 

individual  life.  In  the  practice  of  the  presence 
of  God  the  artificial  distinctions  and  barriers 
of  dress  and  taste  and  custom  vanish,  and  man 
stands  revealed  a  living  soul,  and  the  relations  to 
God  and  to  man  are  recognized  and  felt.  Men 
have  gone  forth  from  the  conscious  presence  of 
God  subdued  and  purified  in  spirit,  and  they  have 
walked  more  humbly  and  they  have  loved  mercy 
more  and  dealt  with  truer  principles  of  justice. 
The  worship  of  the  Church  sustains  and  inspires 
the  graces  and  forces  of  the  spiritual  life. 

The  place  of  worship  in  religion  and  in  life 
brings  thought  of  our  own  leadership.  Here 
is  the  true  priesthood  of  the  ministry.  We 
should  take  off  our  shoes,  for  the  place  is  holy 
ground.  We  should  walk  with  uncovered  heads 
in  the  presence  of  the  living  Lord.  They  that 
handle  sacred  things  should  have  pure  hands. 
They  that  have  the  vision  of  God  and  lead  men 
into  its  light  must  have  pure  hearts.  A  reverence 
for  God  from  a  sincere  and  humble  heart,  a 
love  for  men  that  shall  see  and  feel  their  deepest 
needs,  an  aspiration  for  life  and  form  that  shall 
worship  in  the  beauty  of  holiness  —  such  must 
be  the  men  who  lead  the  people  in  the  highest 
and  holiest  of  all  endeavour. 


LECTURE  II 
THE  FORM  OF  WORSHIP 


OUTLINE 

Principles  of  Worship. 
Expressive  of  religious  life. 
Diversity  of  form. 
Simplicity. 

Methods  of  Worship. 
Old  Testament: 

Joyousness,  community,  and  splendour. 
New  Testament: 

Simplicity  and  freedom;  edification  and  order. 

The  New  Testament   Elements  of  Worship. 
The  reading  of  the  Scriptures. 
Preaching. 
Prayer. 
Singing. 
The  Creed. 
The  offering. 

The  Sacraments:  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper. 
Special  discussion  of  the  offering  and  the  Creed, 
and  the  relation  of  the  sermon  and  worship. 


18 


II 

THE  FORM  OF  WORSHIP 

Worship  is  essentially  of  the  heart.  It  cannot 
consist  of  mere  outward  form.  It  has  two 
elements  or  factors,  the  human  and  the  divine. 
We  offer  to  God,  we  contemplate  His  character 
and  His  providence,  we  love  Him,  aspire  after 
His  perfections  and  vow  to  do  His  will.  God 
gives  to  us  His  truth.  His  forgiveness,  the  quicken- 
ing and  purifying  power  of  His  Spirit. 

While  worship  is  spiritual,  not  formal,  the 
spiritual  worship  of  an  assembly  will  naturally 
assume  an  outward  form.  In  this  way  unity 
of  thought,  feeling,  and  purpose  is  secured,  the 
fullest  expression  of  worship  and  the  fullest 
blessings  to  spiritual  life. 

Principles  of  Worship. —  Are  there  any 
simple  and  universal  principles  to  govern  the 
form  of  worship  .f^ 

Forms  of  worship  should  be  the  truthful 
expression  of  the  religious  life,  worthy  concep- 
tions of  God  and  sincere  interpreters  of  religious 
19 


20  Public  Worship 

experience;  product  of  the  spirit  of  man  under  the 
light  and  power  of  the  truth.  The  process  is 
vital,  not  mechanical,  from  within  to  the  outer 
life.  It  is  what  the  soul  demands  to  express 
what  God  has  done  and  can  do  for  it.  All  the 
Godward  experiences  of  life  may  find  voice. 
"The  Christian's  worship  is  not  merely  the  cry 
of  a  perishing  soul,  but  is  also  the  rapturous 
recognition  of  the  Lord  and  Light  of  heaven 
within  his  human  reach.  All  pure  affections, 
emotions,  sensibilities,  are  exercised  in  that  ex- 
perience and  find  expression  in  the  acts  and 
words  that  try  to  utter  it."  The  familiar  words 
of  the  poet  Montgomery  concerning  prayer 
truly  voice  the  possible  range  of  worship: 

"Prayer  is  the  simplest  form  of  speech 
That  infant  lips  can  try. 
Prayer  the  sublimest  strains  that  reach 
The  majesty  on  high." 

If  worship  is  to  be  the  true  voice  of  a  people, 
expressive  of  various  natures  and  experiences, 
it  follows  that  forms  of  worship  cannot  always 
he  the  same.  Some  diversity  is  inevitable  as 
there  is  diversity  of  experience  and  condition. 
Temperament,  training,  experience,  call  for  wide 
variation  within  the  limits  of  reverent  form. 
"It  is  not  necessary,"  says  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession, "that  human  traditions,  rites,  or  cere- 


The  Form  of  Worship  21 

monies  instituted  by  men  should  be  alike  every- 
where." Living  worship  flourishes  the  best  in  the 
atmosphere  of  freedom. 

The  nature  of  forms  should  be  simple.  Sim- 
plicity is  a  relative  term,  but  nothing  should 
be  used  that  is  not  demanded  by  the  nature  of 
God  and  the  need  of  the  soul.  Whatever  has 
its  source  in  love  of  display  more  than  love  of 
truth  is  not  in  harmony  with  religion.  A  highly 
articulated  service  will  not  harmonize  with  a 
worshipful  spirit.  The  form  of  worship  must  be 
easily  understood  and  bring  quick  and  spontane- 
ous response  from  the  worshippers.  It  is  a  super- 
ficial view  of  worship  to  lay  too  much  stress 
on  the  outward  act.  The  soul  is  the  important 
matter.  Historically,  worship  has  lost  in  spirit- 
uality as  it  has  gained  in  elaborate  form. 

Methods  of  Worship. —  The  new  his- 
torical view  of  the  Old  Testament  makes  it 
difficult  to  characterize  as  a  whole  the  nature  of 
Jewish  worship.  It  is  a  history  of  development, 
and  it  is  not  always  possible  to  tell  whether  the 
changes  are  those  of  growth  or  decay.  In  the 
preexilic  period  the  worship  was  affected  by 
the  corrupt  thought  and  practice  of  the  nature- 
worship  of  neighbouring  peoples. 

Taught  by  the  prophets  and  by  the  bitter 


22  Public  Worship 

experience  of  captivity  the  unity  and  holiness 
of  God,  the  worship  grew  more  sacrificial  and 
formal  after  the  exile,  and  Jerusalem  and  the 
temple  became  the  centre  of  the  priestly  system. 
While  the  exile  destroyed  idolatrous  worship 
and  strengthened  the  priestly  code,  it  also  gave 
rise  to  the  synagogue.  The  spirit  of  prayer  grew 
and  the  temple  was  pictured  as  the  "house  of 
prayer."  Songs  became  a  part  of  congregational 
worship  and  the  Psalter  the  national  hymn-book. 
So  there  was  a  twofold  development  of  worship.'^ 
in  the  Jewish  Church;  the  sacrificial  system  and 
the  stately  priestly  ceremonial,  with  the  freer 
and  more  spiritual  congregational  worship  of 
the  synagogue. 

Three  characteristics  mark  the  history  as  a 
whole:  joyousness,  community,  and  splendour. 
The  joyous  spirit  of  praise  was  always  a  note 
of  the  public  worship,  from  the  joy  of  harvest 
to  the  joy  of  forgiveness.  "The  mercy  of 
Jehovah  is  everlasting  and  His  truth  is  to  all 
generations."  Then  the  people  as  a  social  and 
national  unit  expressed  their  life  in  worship. 
The  national  capitol  was  the  focus  of  religious 
thought  and  expression  and  the  synagogue  was 
the  rallying  point  of  the  local  community.  And 
worship  had  that  formal  splendour  of  rites  and 
place  and  persons  that  expressed  its  importance 


The  Form  of  Worship  23 

in  the  national  life.  The  formal  elements  are 
exalted.  Truth  had  its  dramatic  representation 
for  the  training  of  the  race.  The  temple  service, 
the  typical  persons  and  rites,  the  mediating 
priesthood,  the  significant  vestments,  the  altars 
and  sacrifices,  were  all  powerful  appeals  to  the 
senses,  truth  in  bold  object-lessons. 

The  New  Testament  makes  a  great  change 
in  worship.  Spiritual  service  takes  the  place 
of  the  ceremonial.  There  is  no  sacerdotal  idea 
of  the  muiistry.  We  are  ministers,  not  priests. 
Not  the  temple  ritual,  but  the  synagogue,  with 
its  simple  and  free  worship,  becomes  the  type 
of  the  Christian  Church.  "There  is  in  the  New 
Testament,"  says  Jacob,  "no  trace  of  Christian 
worshippers  turning  to  the  east  in  their  prayers 
or  other  parts  of  their  service;  though  this  prac- 
tice appears  at  the  beginning  of  the  third  century 
and  was  probably  begun  much  earlier.  Neither  is 
the  use  of  incense  nor  lamps  nor  candles,  as  sacred 
or  symbolic  accompaniments  in  any  Christian 
ceremony,  to  be  found  in  the  Apostolic  Age;  nor 
iocs  it  appear  that  Christian  ministers  then 
wore  any  peculiar  dress  or  official  vestments 
in  any  of  their  ministrations.  All  these  came 
in  at  a  later  period,  and  were  derived  from 
Jewish  or  heathen  practices,  as  the  Church, 
having  lost  the  fulness  and  freshness  of  Apostolic 


24  Public  Worship 

truth,  learned  from  such  objectionable  sources 
to  affect  a  more  elaborate  ceremonial   and  to 
court    an  aesthetic  display  quite  foreign  to  the 
devout  simplicity  of  the  Apostolic  Age." 
:i-^  V  ^^  cannot  find  in  the  New  Testament  any 

definite  instructions  as  to  the  form  of  worship 
any  more  than  we  can  as  to  the  form  of  Church 
organization.  Certain  facts  as  to  worship  and 
life  are  there,  but  the  inference  is  wholly  un- 
warrantable that  these  facts  are  laws  to  govern 
the  entire  expression  of  the  Church.  Christ 
gave  the  disciples  a  simple  and  brief  prayer  and 
established  the  sacrament  of  His  table  and 
commanded  baptism  as  the  initial  act  of  the 
new  life,  the  norm  it  might  be  said  of  a  liturgy; 
and  yet  we  have  no  evidence  that  He  made  even 
these  simple  forms  essential  to  correct  worship. 
He  left  the  Church  entirely  free  in  the  develop- 
ment of  its  life  and  its  forms  of  worship. 

We  have  a  right  to  say,  however,  that  Christv 
had  no  sympathy  with  mere  form.  He  was  a 
reformer  in  worship  as  well  as  in  life.  A  spirit- 
ual service  of  God  should  supplant  a  priestly 
and  ceremonial.  Both  in  doctrine  and  worship 
He  recurs  to  fundamental  principles.  While 
He  took  part  in  the  Temple  services.  He  rec- 
ognized their  temporary  character.  With  the 
mechanical  piety  that  consisted  in  the  scrupulous 


The  Form  of  Worship  25 

observance  of  external  rites  —  the  tithing  of 
mint,  anise,  and  cummin,  the  washing  of  pots 
and  cups,  the  arrangement  of  robes  and  tassels 
and  straps — Jesus  had  no  sympathy.  His  cleans- 
ing of  the  Temple  is  best  interpreted  as  a  sym- 
bolic act,  prophetic  of  the  end  of  the  sacrificial 
system  of  worship. 

Christ  gave  the  single  universal  principle  of 
worship  to  the  woman  of  Sychar:  "God  is  a 
spirit  and  they  that  worship  Him  must  worship 
Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth."  That  is  clear 
and  far-reaching.  We  intuitively  recognize  its 
simplicity  and  breadth.  It  shows  the  vanity 
of  all  form  that  is  not  the  outgrowth  of  spiritual 
needs  or  the  development  of  truth  and  life  given 
of  God.  And  so  simplicity  and  freedom  are 
noted  in  every  glimpse  of  the  New  Testament 
Church.  There  is  no  trace  of  the  sacerdotal 
idea  or  of  prescribed  forms. 

What  will  best  express  the  religious  life,  be 
the  worthy  voice  of  our  faith,  add  to  the  number 
of  true  believers  and  strengthen  them,  in  fact, 
edification,  seems  to  be  the  first  law  of  early 
worship.  So  Paul  urges  in  his  letters  to  the 
Ephesians  and  to  the  Corinthians  that  all  things 
be  done  unto  edification.  It  is  the  chief  end  of 
congregational  worship. 

Worship  must  be  free  if  it  is  sincere,  but  free- 


26  Public  Worship 

dom  is  not  irregularity  and  fanatical  confusion. 
And  so  the  Apostle  urges  that  all  things  be  done 
decently  and  in  order.  Order  seems  the  second 
law  of  early  worship.  And  under  this  principle 
Paul  condemned  the  wrong  love  and  use  of  the 
gift  of  tongues,  and  in  the  Church  of  Corinth  at 
that  time  the  public  speech  of  women. 

The  New  Testament  Elements  of  ^Vo^- 
ship —  As  the  embodiment  of  these  simple 
principles  in  the  New  Testament  we  have  the 
seven  elements  of  worship;  nowhere  found  to- 
gether as  a  definite  and  prescribed  form,  but  seen 
in  hints  or  glimpses  of  the  early  Church  in  nar- 
rative or  letter: 

1 .  The  reading  of  the  Scriptures. 

2.  The  exposition  of  the  Scripture;  teaching  or 

preaching. 

3.  Prayer,  holding  a  prominent  place,  both  a  use 

of  sacred  and  venerable  forms,  and  free  and 
spontaneous  in  expression. 

4.  Singing;    the   peculiar   expression   of    the    de- 

votional sentiment,  the  use  of  both  old  and 
new  hymns. 

5.  The  Creed;  the  public  confession  of  the  faith 

of  Christians  and  the  testimony  to  the  es- 
sential facts  and  truths  of  the  new  religion. 

6.  The  offering;  a  practical  expression  of  gratitude 

to  God  for  His  great  gift,  and  to  men  of  the 
new  love  that  was  to  control  human  relations. 


The  Form  of  Worship  27 

7 ,  The  Sacraments  —  two ;  Baptism  and  the  Lord's 
Supper;  baptism,  the  outer  sign  of  the  inward 
change  of  hfe  and  the  formal  entrance  into 
the  new  Society;  the  Lord's  Supper,  with 
the  Agape,  used  at  first  with  every  service 
of  pubHc  worship,  and  with  no  fixed  ritual. 

As  the  use  of  Scripture  in  worship,  public 
prayer,  and  sacred  song  will  have  separate 
treatment,  it  is  well  here  to  have  a  further 
word  concerning  other  parts  of  New  Testament 
worship. 

Giving  is  called  a  grace  in  the  New  Testament. 
It  is  a  particular  mark  and  proof  of  Christian 
love.  The  source  of  giving  and  the  controlling 
principle  of  it  is  found  in  Paul's  account  of  the 
offerings  of  the  Churches  of  Macedonia:  "First 
they  gave  their  own  selves  to  the  Lord,  and  to 
us  by  the  will  of  God."  The  Christian  has  a 
master  who  is  the  Lord  of  life  because  Redeemer. 
And  the  bond  is  love  which  is  to  control  all 
life.  Watts  has  best  expressed  it  in  his  great 
communion   hymn : 

Were  the  whole  realm  of  Nature  mine  \ 
That  were  a  present  far  too  small;       \ 
Love  so  amazing,  so  divine,  ) 

V        Demands  my  soul,  my  life,  my  all.'* 

And  this  new  principle  of  life  found  ready 
and  spontaneous  expression  in  worship.  The 
giving  of  substance  was  a  natural  and  necessary 


28  Public  Worship 

sacrifice  of  love.  The  suggestion  at  least  is 
found  in  Paul's  first  letter  to  the  Corinthian 
Church.  "Upon  the  first  day  of  the  week  let 
each  one  of  you  lay  by  him  in  store,  as  he  may 
prosper."  Such  giving  is  to  be  systematic,  pro- 
portionate and  on  the  Lord's  day.  It  is  a  sign 
that  religion  is  life,  that  it  is  God's  blessing  that 
maketh  rich,  that  genuine  faith  must  fulfil  the 
law  of  Christ  in  bearing  the  burdens  of  others, 
and  that  gifts  are  necessary  to  maintain  the 
Church  and  its  work  in  the  world.  The  financial 
side  of  the  Church  must  be  lifted  out  of  the  com- 
mercial spirit  into  a  spiritual  service.  It  is 
rightly  and  nobly  a  part  of  worship.  Our  gifts 
are  offerings  to  God,  and  should  be  sanctified  by 
prayer. 

The  Creed.  —  It  is  fitting  that  some  united 
expression  of  faith  should  be  voiced  by  the 
people.  The  tradition  of  the  Apostles'  Creed, 
however  uncertain,  is  in  accordance  with  the 
truth  that  "with  the  mouth  confession  is  made 
unto  salvation."  No  doubt  some  statement  of 
faith  was  early  a  part  of  worship.  The  words 
in  First  Timothy  seem  such  a  creed,  "He  who  was 
manifested  in  the  flesh,  justified  in  the  Spirit, 
seen  of  angels,  preached  among  the  nations, 
believed  on  in  the  world,  received  up  in  glory." 


The  Form  of  Worship  29 

Creeds  may  be  divisive  and  polemical  and  tem- 
porary. But  faiths  born  of  the  heart,  from  the 
rich  experience  of  God's  grace,  are  the  fit  ex- 
pression of  the  worshipful  spirit,  and  go  beneath 
passing  fashion  of  mood  and  thought  and  take 
hold  of  the  unchanging  verities  of  religion. 

The  Sermon. —  The  sermon  is  not  something 
separate,  but  is  an  important  part  of  worship. 
Luther's  words  are  hardly  too  strong:  "Where 
the  Word  of  God  is  not  preached,  it  is  better 
neither  to  sing  nor  read,  nor,  for  that  matter,  to 
come  together  at  all.  A  Christian  ought  to 
know  that  on  earth  there  is  no  greater  sanctuary 
than  God's  Word." 

Every  true  sermon  is  the  preparation  of  the 
soul  for  worship.  I  cannot  conceive  of  any 
preaching  worth  the  name  that  does  not  in  some 
way  uncover  the  heavens  and  make  God  real, 
or  uncover  life  and  make  the  soul  real.  If  it 
does  either,  it  makes  the  hearer  conscious  of  the 
soul's  kinship  to  God  and  gives  the  impulse  of 
adoration.  The  best  preaching  is  in  the  highest 
sense  worshipful.  The  sermon  aims  at  th« 
instruction  of  the  believer,  at  the  fuller  knowledge 
and  appropriation  of  the  nature  and  purpose  ai 
God  in  Christ,  and  so  to  a  more  perfect  worship. 

The  spirit  of  Christian  worship  is  outreaching. 


30  Public  Worship 

Its  horizon  is  not  the  Uttle  company  of  beUevers, 
but  the  larger  vision  of  the  divine  compassion. 
"Other  sheep  I  have,  not  of  this  fold;  them  also 
I  must  call  that  there  may  be  one  flock  and  one 
shepherd."  And  every  faithful  proclamation 
of  the  Word  joins  with  the  fervent  prayer  of  the 
Church  for  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom. 

I  think  this  should  be  said:  that  the  purest 
worship  has  been  accompanied  with  the  purest 
teaching  of  the  Scriptures.  Surely  no  song  of 
praise,  no  word  of  thanksgiving  has  been  more 
acceptable  to  the  Father  than  that  raised  in 
the  hills  of  Scotland,  hiding  places  of  the  Cove- 
nanters, or  in  the  rude  log  meeting-houses  of 
the  colonies,  or  from  the  groups  in  heathen 
lands,  everywhere  gathered  with  the  hunger  for 
the  Word.  And  the  spiritual  eras  of  the  Church 
have  been  marked  by  the  growing  simplicity 
and  freedom  of  worship. 

On  the  other  h  nd,  the  worship  of  the  Church 
has  no  little  influence  upon  the  sermon.  It  is 
the  best  spiritual  preparation  for  the  preacher. 
The  effort  to  realize  and  express  the  manifold 
wants  of  the  people  in  public  prayer  should 
make  his  heart  tender,  and  fill  it  with  a  great 
longing,  and  give  to  his  teachings  the  very  tone  of 
voice  and  manner,  the  directness  and  sympathy, 
to  make  the  word   powerful.     No   formal   and 


The  Form  of  Worship  31 

lifeless  preaching  from  a  man  who  fervently 
worships!  Many  a  preacher  has  felt  the  power 
of  sacred  song  to  quicken  the  finer  sensibilities 
and  start  holy  aspirations! 

The  praise  of  the  Church  may  be  inspiring: 
God  may  be  in  it.  It  parts  the  heavy  pall  of 
the  senses,  and  the  spirit  life  seems  supreme. 
One  preaches  better  after  such  worship.  Happy 
the  pastor  who  can  always  be  borne  to  his  sermon- 
work  by  such  a  breath  of  God ! 

And  not  less  truly  is  worship  a  spiritual  prepa- 
ration for  the  hearer.  All  that  makes  men 
conscious  of  spiritual  nature  and  need,  that 
awakens  longings  for  better  things,  that  lifts 
mind  and  heart  out  of  the  dead  round  of  secular 
interests  and  doings,  is  making  the  heart  sen- 
sitive to  divine  impressions.  True  prayer  and 
true  praise  will  invariably  have  this  effect. 
The  prayers  and  praises  of  the  London  Taber- 
nacle or  Plymouth  Church  were  like  a  gentle 
rain  that  made  the  soil  soft  for  the  divine  seed. 
You  felt  in  the  very  presence  of  God  while  Mr. 
Spurgeon  prayed.  And  the  volume  of  song 
that  swelled  from  thousands  of  voices  made 
you  feel  the  glorious  company  of  the  redeemed, 
and  brought  from  your  heart  its  tribute  of  grate- 
ful, adoring  praise.  While  you  were  praising, 
the  hunger  of  the  Word  was  growing.      "He 


32  Public  Worship 

looked  upon  music  as  the  preacher's  prime 
minister,"  says  Doctor  Barrows  of  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  "inciting  to  emotion  through  the 
imagination,  through  the  taste,  through  the  feel- 
ing. He  said  of  Zundel's  handling  of  the  organ, 
"  It  has  brought  tears  to  my  eyes  a  hundred  times. 
I  have  gone  in  jaded  and  unhearted,  and  have 
been  caught  up  by  him  and  lifted  so  that  I  saw 
the  flash  of  the  gates!  I  have  been  comforted, 
I  have  been  helped."  And  in  following  the 
public  words  of  adoration,  thanksgiving,  petition, 
more  than  one  heart  has  been  led  for  the  first 
time  in  faith  to  adopt  the  Word  as  its  own 
expression. 

Surely  then  it  is  right  to  suffer  no  separation 
in  thought  or  service  between  preaching  and 
worship:  never  to  put  apart  what  God  has 
joined.  The  sermon  may  be  the  centre  of  the 
service  of  the  Church,  but  while  there  is  temple 
and  minister,  the  sermon  can  never  say  of  the 
song  or  Scripture  or  prayer,  "I  have  no  need 
of   thee." 


LECTURE  III 
DOCTRINE  AND  WORSHIP 


OUTLINE 

The  Simple  Worship  of  the  New  Testament  Developed 

into  Elaborate  Forms. 

Growth  of  the  ascetic  spirit.  Efforts  to  attract  the 
pagan  world.  Growth  of  the  hierarchy.  Chris- 
tianity a  state  religion,  so  imitating  the  splendour 
of  the  court.  The  Lord's  Supper  as  a  sacrifice 
the  central  act  of  worship. 

The  Worship  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Worship  expanded  into  an  imposing  dramatic  and 

symbolic  ritual. 
The  lights  and  shadows  of  the  Church. 
The  triumph  of  the  sacerdotal  idea. 

Worship  Since  the  Reformation. 
The     principles     of     the     Reformation.     Luther*s 
teaching  as  to  worship.     Difference  between  the 
Lutheran  and  the  Reformed  churches.    The  litur- 
gies of  Calvin  and  Knox. 

Later  Movements  in  Worship. 
Influence  on  worship,  of  the  orthodoxy  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  Pietism.  The  Rationalism 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  Methodist  and 
the  Oxford  Movements.  The  Puritan  party  and 
its  influence  on  the  worship  of  the  American 
churches. 


34 


Ill 

DOCTRINE  AND  WORSHIP 

The  truth  suggested,  that  worship  is  the 
exponent  of  the  thought  and  life  of  the  Church, 
and  so  the  forms,  if  truthful,  must  change  with 
the  changing  forms  of  creeds  and  conduct,  is 
verified  by  the  history  of  worship. 

Take  a  single  relation  —  doctrine  and  worship. 
Worship  exactly  registers  the  growth  of  doctrine.  / 

What  developed  the  simple  worship  of  the  New 
Testament  into  the  stately  and  splendid  cere- 
monials of  the  pre-Reformation  times? 

The  simple  character  of  worship  in  the  Apostolic 
Church  was  largely  maintained,  well  into  the 
middle  of  the  second  century.  The  growth  of 
the  ascetic  spirit  in  the  latter  part  of  the  second 
century  affected  the  simplicity  of  worship. 
Separation  from  men  and  the  effort  to  deny  the 
natural  desires  led  to  fasts  and  prayers  and 
vigils,  and  fixed  the  thought  upon  forms,  and  so, 
ere  long,  multiplied  the  ceremonies  of  the 
Church.  And  to  this  must  be  added  the  desire 
to  attract  the  heathen  world  by  the  increased 
35 


36  Public  Worship 

impressiveness  and  splendour  of  worship,  and  so 
the  imitation  of  both  Jewish  and  heathen  forms. 

The  hierarchical  tendencies  of  the  fourth  and 
fifth  centuries  still  further  developed  the  formal- 
ity of  worship.  Cyprian  of  Alexandria  who  at- 
tempted "to  set  up  a  merely  religious  empire, 
independent  of  human  relationships  and  civil 
laws,"  taught  that  bishops  derived  authority 
not  from  the  people  but  directly  from  God,  that 
they  were  the  successors  of  the  Apostles  by 
virtue  of  transmitted  grace  and  so  the  ministry 
became  a  sacerdotal  class. 

Under  Constantine  the  Great,  Christianity 
became  a  state  religion  and  partook  of  the  pomp 
and  splendour  of  the  state.  Elaborate  ritual 
marked  the  service.  Augustine  complained  that 
the  yoke  once  laid  upon  the  Jews  was  more 
supportable  than  that  laid  upon  many  Chris- 
tians. And  Mosheim  writing  of  the  period 
declares  that  "there  was  little  difference  in 
these  times  between  the  public  worship  of  the 
Christians  and  that  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans." 

The  Lord's  Supper  became  the  chief  feature, 
as  we  learn  from  the  Clementine  liturgy,  de- 
veloped through  the  liturgy  of  Chrysostom  into 
the  worship  of  the  Greek  Church.  The  Supper 
was  made  a  mystery  and  enveloped  in  great 
ceremony.     It   was   made   the  priestly  oblation 


Doctrine  and  Worship  37 

of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ.  The  correlate 
of  the  priestly  idea  is  found  in  the  sacrificial 
idea.  Worship  was  regarded  as  a  sacrifice.  It 
was  not  so  much  the  expression  of  spiritual  fellow- 
ship as  a  meritorious  act. 

So  we  have  the  Church  a  hierarchy,  the  min- 
istry a  priesthood,  taking  the  natural  expression 
of  elaborate  worship,  in  which  the  Lord's  Supper 
as  a  sacrifice  was  the  central  act. 

The  Worship  of  the  Middle  Ages.— The 
relation  of  doctrine  to  worship  is  easily 
traced  in  the  history  of  the  Church  since  the 
time  of  Constantine.  Unevangelical  doctrine 
perverted  spiritual  worship.  The  centralizing 
tendency  culminated  in  Leo  the  Great,  who 
imposed  a  single  liturgical  form  upon  a  large  part 
of  Christendom.  With  the  increase  of  the  ma- 
terial power  and  form  of  the  Church,  unworthy 
men  sought  her  offices,  the  sacred  became  not  a 
matter  of  spirit  and  life,  but  of  churchly  persons 
and  places  and  acts,  and  the  unscriptural  dis- 
tinction between  the  sacred  and  the  secular 
was  lodged  in  the  popular  thought.  Religion^ 
became  an  outward  ceremony  apart  from  the 
character  and  the  life.  A  people  thus  trained 
had  no  hunger  for  the  Word  and  the  Church  no 
message  to  give,  and  the  sermon  became  a  small 


S8  Public  Worship 

incident  of  the  service  and  at  last  generally 
given  up.  The  worship  expanded  into  an  im- 
posing dramatic  and  symbolic  ritual. 

This  is  true  of  the  Eastern  Church,  and  there 
has  been  little  change  and  no  progress  in  worship 
since  the  days  of  Leo  the  Great. 

The  Western  Ch  rch  witnessed  a  further 
development  of  hierarchy  and  ritual. 

The  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages  (600—1517) 
is  full  of  lights  and  shadows.  The  lights  are 
the  missionary  zeal  that  pushed  its  way  into  every 
part  of  the  known  earth,  the  heroic  efforts  of 
reform  within  the  Church  in  such  lives  as  Wyclif 
and  Huss,  the  romantic  faith  that  drove  the 
multitudes  to  the  Far  East  to  rescue  the  holy 
sepulchre,  the  lofty  conceptions  that  took  form 
in  cathedrals  and  madonnas,  the  music  of  great 
souls  that  found  their  voice  in  ^'Dies  Irce'^  and 
"Stabat  Mater''  and  the  "Celestial  Country." 

The  shadows  are  in  the  worldly  ecclesiasticism 
that  made  the  Church  not  the  fellowship  of 
saints,  but  the  outward  organization,  and  the 
priestly  power  that  reduced  John  of  England  to  a 
papal  vassal,  and  brought  Henry  IV  of  Germany 
in  penitential  garb  to  Canossa.  These  centuries 
saw  the  triumph  of  the  sacerdotal  idea.  "Accord- 
ing to  this  the  priesthood  is  distinguished  from 
and  raised  above  the  laity  in  four  particulars: 


Doctrine  and  Worship  39 

(1)  The  priest  mediates  between  God  and  the 
people.  (2)  He  has  power  to  change  the  bread 
and  wine  of  the  Sacrament  into  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ.  (3)  He  offers  the  sacrifice  of 
the  mass  for  the  sins  of  the  living  and  the  dead. 
(4)  He  has  power  to  forgive  sins.'* 

The  influence  of  such  doctrine  on  worship  is 
very  evident.  It  tends  to  take  worship  away, 
from  the  people,  and  to  make  it  wholly  by  the 
priest.  The  subjective  elements  of  worship  are 
no  longer  the  praise  and  prayer  and  thanksgiving 
of  the  people,  but  celebrations  and  pageants  and 
gifts.  The  Scriptures  were  practically  with- 
drawn from  the  people  in  favour  of  tradition. 
No  new  translations  were  made  as  the  area  of 
the  Church  was  enlarged;  new  nations  were 
left  without  the  Word  of  God  in  their  own  speech; 
and  the  service  of  the  Church  was  everywhere 
held  in  a  single  and  to  most  an  unknown  tongue. 
Preaching  was  neglected.  The  mass  in  its 
fundamental  idea  was  an  offering  to  God.  Tran- 
substantiation  completed  the  sensuous  worship. 
The  priest  represented  the  people  in  worship, 
and  the  people  rendered  divine  honours  to  the 
elements. 

Worship    Since    the    Reformation.  —  The 
three  principles  of    the  Reformation  are:    (1) 


40  Public  Worship 

the  authority  of  the  Word  of  God;  (2)  justi- 
fication by  faith;  (3)  and  the  authority  of  con- 
science. These  principles  had  immediate  effect 
upon  worship.  The  people  were  priests  and 
needed  no  worship  done  for  them.  Worship 
became  once  more  the  expression  of  the  people's 
faith  and  life.  The  Bible  was  put  in  the  ver- 
nacular, and  publicly  interpreted  to  the  people. 
Religious  feeling  found  voice  in  song,  and  praise 
took  its  place  again  in  the  worship  of  the  Church. 

Luther  taught  that:  (1)  preaching  and  teaching 
the  divine  Word  is  the  centre  of  worship;  (2)  that 
worship  is  not  a  meritorious  act  by  which  man 
obtains  the  grace  of  God;  (3)  that  forms  of 
worship  must  be  adapted  to  times  and  circum- 
stances, since  uniformity  of  ceremonies  is  no 
proper  mark  of  the  unity  of  the  Church. 

Luther  did  not  wholly  cut  loose  from  former 
associations  of  worship.  He  believed  in  vener- 
able use;  he  loved  the  stately  and  beautiful 
expressions  of  truth  that  had  come  down  the 
centuries.  He  took  the  Roman  mass  and 
reformed  whatever  he  thought  interfered  with 
Scripture  doctrine  and  kept  the  rest.  And  the 
Lutheran  Church,  while  holding  to  the  freedom 
of  use  and  the  non-essential  character  of  forms, 
has  always  been  liturgical  in  its  worship. 

The  Reformed  churches  have   been  somewhat 


Doctrine  and  Worship  41 

different.  The  Lutheran  has  emphasized  the' 
objective  elements  in  worship;  the  sacraments, 
the  creed,  the  united  expression  of  the  people. 
The  Reformed  has  put  stress  upon  the  subjective 
elements,  prayer  and  praise,  and  upon  preaching. 
Calvin,  Zwingle,  and  others  of  the  Reformed 
churches  were  less  conservative  of  ancient 
usages;  they  were  not  renovators  of  the  Romish 
mass,  but  producers  of  new  forms,  going  directly 
to  the  New  Testament  simplicity.  Calvin, 
Zwingle,  and  Knox  all  composed  liturgies,  but 
very  simple  in  form. 

CALVIN'S  SERVICE 


1. 

Scripture  lesson  with  Ten  Commandments. 

2. 

Confession  of  sin.     {Fixed.) 

3. 

Singing  Psalm. 

4. 

Free  prayer. 

5. 

Sermon. 

6. 

Prayer,  or  Lord's  Prayer. 

7. 

Apostles'  Creed. 

8. 

Benediction.     Num.  6 :  23. 

1. 

Invocation. 

2. 

Apostles'  Creed. 

3. 

Exhortation. 

4. 

Consecration  of  elements.     Communion, 

5. 

Distribution  —  Psalm  singing. 

6. 

Prayer  of  Thanksgiving. 

7. 

Nunc  Dimittis. 

8. 

Benediction. 

42  Public  Worship 

KNOX'S  SERVICE  (1556)  ADOPTED  BY 
THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  1560 


1. 

Confession  of  sin.     (Fixed.) 

2. 

Scripture  lesson.    0.  and  N.  T. 

3. 

Singing  Psalm. 

4. 

Prayer  for  S.  S.     (Fixed.) 

5. 

Sermon. 

6. 

General  prayer.    Lord's  Prayer  and  Apostles' 

Creed. 

7. 

Singing  Psalm. 

8. 

Benediction. 

1. 

Preface.     1  Cor.  11:23-30. 

2. 

Exhortation. 

3. 

Consecration  of  elements. 

4. 

Distribution. 

5. 

Prayer  and  Thanksgiving. 

6. 

Singing  Psalm. 

7. 

Benediction. 

The  English  Prayer-book.  —  The  first 
Prayer-book  of  Edward  VI  (1549)  was  an  adapta- 
tion of  the  Roman  Missal  used  in  the  diocese 
of  Salisbury,  known  as  the  Sarum  use.  Receiv- 
ing the  criticism  of  Calvin,  Bucer,  and  other 
reformers  for  its  unscriptural  views,  it  was  revised 
in  1552  under  the  influence  of  Cranmer  and 
Latimer.  It  passed  through  later  revisions 
under  Elizabeth,  James  I,  and  last  Charles  II, 
1662.    The  American  Prayer-book,  taken  from 


Doctrine  and  Worship  43 

the  English,  has  passed  through  two  revisions, 
the  last  within  recent  years. 

Later  Movements  in  AVorship.  —  The' 
dead  orthodoxy  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
spending  itself  in  creed  discussions,  led  to  cold 
and  formal  worship.  Then  Pietism  deepened 
spiritual  life,  enriched  the  hymnology  of  the 
Church,  made  prayer  free,  and  restored  practical 
preaching. 

The  Rationalism  of  the  eighteenth  century  had 
for  its  counterpart  sentimental  and  ethical 
preaching,  and  the  revival  of  liturgical  forms. 

The  Methodist  movement  in  the  middle  of  the 
century,  beginning  in  the  prayer  band  of  Oxford 
students,  made  for  a  free  and  simple  and  fervent 
worship.  The  Oxford  or  Tractarian  movement 
(1833)  was  anti-liberal  in  state  and  religion, 
marked  by  appetite  for  antiquity  and  d  sire 
for  outward  authority.  It  was  not  only  a  reac- 
tion against  the  forces  of  social  reform,  philo- 
sophic inquiry  and  Biblical  criticism  that  were 
demanding  a  new  world;  it  was  a  creative  con- 
servatism, leading  to  a  fresh  organization  of  the 
Church.  We  cannot  doubt  that  the  Oxford  (/ 
movement  led  to  the  deepening  of  the  spiritual 
life  of  the  Church. 

Its  direct  action  upon  worship  was  to  magnify ^^ 


44  Public  Worship 

its  importance;  to  increase  all  that  belongs  to 
the  visible  form  of  the  Church;  and  so  to  mul- 
tiply forms  and  rites  and  vestments,  and  lead  to 
modern  ritualism. 

Indirectly  it  has  been  a  more  unquestioned 
blessing.  It  has  called  universal  attention  to 
the  history  of  worship,  compelling  all  churches 
to  consider  its  importance.  It  has  developed'*^ 
the  spirit  of  reverence,  and  added  nobility  to 
feeling,  showing  us  how  to  be  emotional  without 
being  vulgar.  It  has  led  to  the  fine  school  of 
modern  English  composers,  that  have  so  greatly 
dignified  and  enriched  our  worship.  And  some 
of  our  sweetest  and  strongest  hymns  have  come 
from  the  same  source.  Faber  alone  wrote  one 
hundred  and  fifty;  many  of  them  have  the  true 
note  of  universality,  the  finest  expressions  of 
certain  states  of  the  soul,  as  sweet  trust,  adoring 
love,   and   expectant  joy. 

The  Reformation  produced  in  some  quarters 
an  extreme  reaction  from  formal  worship.  The 
iconoclastic  spirit  that  condemned  all  art  in 
the  service  of  religion  equally  condemned  beauty 
in  worship. 

As  we  have  found  fixed  liturgical  forms  were  not 
wholly  discarded  by  the  reformers.  John  Knox 
used  the  Prayer-book  of  Edward  VI.  Richard 
Baxter  was    not   opposed    to    a   liturgy   if  not 


Doctrine  and  Worship  45 

too  vigorously  imposed;  and  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  England  and  America  barely  escaped 
adopting  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  as  finally 
corrected  under  Charles  II. 

It  was  left  for  the  extreme  Puritan  party  id 
protest  against  "human  prescriptions  and  for- 
malism in  religious  matters."  Some  of  their 
leaders  went  to  prison  for  their  opposition  to 
the  Prayer-book.  The  ministers  who  in  the 
time  of  Elizabeth  tried  to  lay  the  foundations 
of  Presbyterianism  in  England  "desired  a 
simplified  service  of  prayer,  greater  liberty  of 
preaching  and  prophesying,  and  exemption  from 
various  usages  characteristic  of  the  old  Roman 
worship.  To  all  such  demands  the  queen  was 
inflexibly  opposed.  She  thought  the  Refor- 
mation had  already  gone  too  far,  and  dreaded 
the  growth  of  Puritanism  as  an  element  of  dis- 
turbance in  the  kingdom.  Any  variation  from 
the  requirements  of  the  act  of  uniformity,  even 
the  slightest,  was  punished  by  fine  and  imprison- 
ment. For  neglecting  the  sign  of  the  cross  in 
baptism,  or  the  ring  in  the  marriage  service, 
devout  and  laborious  pastors  were  torn  from 
their  families  and  flocks  and  left  to  pine  for 
years  in  filthy  dungeons."  ("Church  Polity" 
—  Hopkins.) 

The    Puritan    party    largely    influenced    the 


46  Public  Worship 

history  of  our  American  worship.  The  early 
New  England  churches  tried  to  found  their 
polity  and  their  worship  on  the  New  Testament, 
and  whatever  they  could  not  find  there,  they 
termed  "mere  will  worship."  Cotton  Mather 
declares  that  the  New  England  churches  "  have 
no  liturgy  composed  for  them,  much  less  imposed 
upon  them;  our  Saviour  and  His  Apostles  never 
provided  any  Prayer-book  but  the  Bible  for 
us."  Our  fathers  brought  to  New  England  / 
a  version  of  the  Psalter  made  by  Ainsworth  of 
Amsterdam  and  this  was  sung  without  instru- 
ments to  a  few  tunes  that  were  in  use  in  the 
English  churches.  The  "Bay  Psalm  Book" 
(1640),  a  rude  versification  of  the  Psalms,  was 
in  use  for  a  century  and  passed  through  seventy 
editions.  The  great  awakening  in  the  eighteenth 
century  was  attended  with  a  new  interest  in 
the  worship  of  praise.  Watts's  "  Psalm  Book" 
was  introduced,  singing  schools  were  commenced, 
and  sacred  music  taught  by  competent  teachers. 
Church  choirs  were  formed  and  the  objections 
to  instruments  were  gradually  overcome.  After 
the  American  Revolution,  at  the  request  of  the 
General  Association  of  Connecticut  and  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
President  Timothy  Dwight  of  Yale  College 
completed  the  work  of  Watts  by  versifying  a 


Doctrine  and  Worship  47 

few  omitted  Psalms,  and  adding  a  few  original 
hymns.  ''I  Love  Thy  Kingdom,  Lord,"  marks 
an  era  in  our  American  church  worship. 

But  the  liturgical  history  of  the  American 
churches  is  a  meagre  one.  The  Puritan  worship 
was  simple  and  bare.  As  far  as  audible  expres- 
sion, the  worship  was  done  for  the  people  as 
fully  as  in  the  splendid  rituals  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  The  choirs  did  the  singing.  The 
minister  alone  had  part  in  Scripture  and  prayer. 
No  '' Te  Deums''  were  sung.  No  confessions  of 
faith  were  uttered.  To  a  lamentable  extent 
the  people  were  shut  out  from  active  part  in 
the  worship.  The  ideals  of  worship  in  Congre- 
gational and  Presbyterian  Churches  have  been 
largely  a  transmission  from  Puritan  New  England. 

The  simple  and  beautiful  forms  of  the  early 
Reformed  liturgies,  such  as  Calvin's  and  Knox's, 
were  curtailed,  robbed  of  their  worshipful  spirit 
through  the  reaction  due  to  Archbishop  Laud's 
attempt  to  force  the  English  Prayer-book 
upon  Scotland.  The  Reformed  churches  passed 
through  the  fire,  and  so  they  hated  everything 
that  had  the  slightest  savour  of  Romanism. 

"If  a  man  dislikes  to  use  a  liturgy  and  you 
crop  his  ears  and  slit  his  nose  to  encourage 
him,  human  nature  is  so  constituted  that  he  is 
apt  to  grow  more  obstinate  and   to  conceive  a 


48  Public  Worship 

quite  unreasonable  prejudice  against  the  book." 
(Dr.  John  Watson.) 

The  time  has  come,  however,  when  the 
question  of  liturgical  forms  can  be  decided 
not  by  traditional  prejudices,  but  by  candid 
investigation. 


LECTURE  IV 

LITURGICAL  OR  FREE  WORSHIP 


OUTLINE 

The  Demands  for  Liturgical  Growth. 
The    religious   use   of   the   senses.     The   aesthetic 
spirit.    The  movement  toward  church  unity. 

Recent  Facts  in  Liturgical  Growth. 
The  movement  in  the  Reformed  churches. 
Individual  experiments.    The  Church  service  socie- 
ties of  Scotland  and  America. 

The  Advantages  of  Liturgical  Worship. 

Uses  the  riches  of  past  religious  life.  Cultivates 
the  sense  of  historic  Christianity.  Is  a  worthy 
and  attractive  expression  of  worship. 

The  Disadvantages  of  Liturgical  Worship. 
Historic  rather  than  present.     Does  not  meet  the 
need  of  all  natures.     Tends  to  elaborate  form 
and  the  possible  loss  of  spirituality. 


50 


IV 
LITURGICAL  OR  FREE  WORSHIP 

The  habits  of  worship  in  the  non-liturgical 
churches  of  to-day  are  largely  a  transmission 
from  the  Reformed  churches  of  Europe  and  from 
the  fathers  of  New  England. 

We  are  not  compelled  to  do  as  our  fathers  did, 
if  we  can  jfind  a  better  way.  The  form  given  in 
our  Directory  for  worship  must  be  tested  solely 
by  its  usefulness:  it  cannot  claim  special  divine 
authority.  Each  congregation  is  left  free  to 
develop  its  own  worship. 

There  is  the  conviction  in  many  minds  that 
the  plain  and  bald  simplicity  of  the  olden  days, 
still  maintained  in  many  churches,  is  lacking  in 
attractiveness,  fails  adequately  to  express  the 
religious  need  and  sentiment  of  our  age,  and  is 
not  in  harmony  with  the  majesty  of  God  and 
the  glorious  nature  of  His  Kingdom. 

The  most  vivid  impressions  are  received 
through  the  senses,  it  is  urged,  and  there  must 
be  a  more  sensible  expression  of  the  great  facts 
51 


52  Public  Worship 

of  the  spiritual  life.  It  is  hard  for  the  best  of 
us  to  see  the  spiritual,  and  we  need  the  help 
of  more  devotional  form.  "Profound  reverence 
and  realism  such  as  no  page  of  a  book  and  no 
passage  in  a  sermon  can  ever  evoke,"  testimony 
of  a  Scotch  Presbyterian  minister  concerning 
the  influence  of  the  "Passion  Play"  upon  visitors 
of  many  lands  and  creeds,  suggest  the  secret 
of  power  of  the  Catholic  worship  over  the  people. 
A  distinguished  English  lawyer  has  made  a  plea 
for  the  use  of  visible  objects,  as  pictures  and 
statues,  as  an  aid  to  faith. 

The  service  of  beauty  in  religion  is  the  ground 
for  further  argument.  There  has  been  a  rapid 
development  of  civilization,  especially  of  the  fine 
arts  and  of  the  popular  taste.  There  is  no 
stronger  proof  of  this  than  our  church  buildings 
and  the  love  and  care  that  go  into  their  adorn- 
ment. And  the  aesthetic  growth  will  be  felt  in 
worship.  The  people  demand  beauty,  not  as 
the  ruling,  but  as  the  serving  element.  The 
highest  beauty  must  have  some  kinship  with 
holiness. 

And  then  a  mighty  movement  is  setting  in 
toward  the  expression  of  the  unity  of  the  Chris- 
tian life.  It  is  set  in  motion  by  God's  spirit, 
we  must  believe,  the  beginning  of  the  answer 
of  the  prayer  of  our  Lord,  "that  they  all  may 


Liturgical  or  Free  Worship  53 

be  one."  It  seeks  the  best  of  other  churches 
and  ages;  it  seeks  to  flow  in  the  channels  of  ven- 
erable use.  It  would  have  some  common  and 
beloved  forms  for  the  expression  of  the  essential 
oneness  of  religious  life.  It  is  sheerest  folly  to 
raise  against  such  sentiments  a  Protestant  preju- 
dice. Is  it  best  to  say  to  such  Christians  (and 
there  is  a  growing  number  of  them),  "You  will 
find  what  you  wish  in  the  liturgical  churches." 
They  are  not  disloyal  to  their  own  communion. 
They  believe  in  its  faith,  its  polity,  its  spirit, 
and  essentially  in  its  worship;  but  they  would 
have  the  latter  developed  and  enriched.  In 
the  words  of  one  who  had  thought  long  on  this 
subject:  "Is  there  no  way,  in  harmony  with 
its  own  history  and  spirit,  by  which  the  unlit- 
urgical  system  of  worship  may  supply  its 
deficiencies,  enrich  its  barrenness,  round  out 
and  complete  its  simple  ritual,  give  unity,  fulness 
and  vitality  to  its  public  worship  of  God,  not 
in  an  sesthetic  sense  merely,  or  as  lending  out- 
ward attractiveness,  but  as  affording  a  true 
medium  to  the  spiritual  devotion  of  the  people? 
In  other  words,  the  question  is,  whether  in  an 
essentially  unliturgical  form  of  worship,  the 
elements  of  power,  truth,  and  beauty,  that  a 
liturgical  form  may  possess,  cannot  be  equally 
secured,  and  the  evils  which  are  wrapped  up 


54  Public  Worship 

in  a  prescribed  form  be,  at  the  same  time, 
avoided?"     (Hoppin.) 

In  an  address  before  the  Presbyterian  Union 
of  Philadelphia  in  1892,  Mr.  E.  B.  Comegys 
uged  the  development  and  enrichment  of  our 
worship.  "The  object  of  the  church  service  is 
prayer  and  praise,  and  the  Presbyterian  Church 
will  never  accomplish  her  mission  until  along 
with  her  well-equipped  pastors,  she  carries  a 
people  who  express  their  devotions  in  well- 
ordered  prayer  and  praise.  .  .  .  There  is 
an  unmistakable  tendency  toward  liturgy  in 
all  churches.  We  cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  it, 
we  cannot  prevent  it.  Let  us  meet  it,  and 
provide  for  it,  and  control  it  by  the  enrich- 
ment of  our  own  services.  What  we  want  is 
improvement  in  the  dignity,  the  comfort,  the 
spirituality,  of  the  devotional  part  of  our 
public  services." 

It  can  hardly  be  denied  that  the  present 
movement  in  many  Protestant  churches  is 
toward  liturgical  worship.  However,  certain  facts 
of  modern  life  will  tend  to  limit  the  tendency; 
the  practical  spirit  that  tests  every  theory  and 
practice  by  its  use,  the  missionary  activity  of 
the  Church,  at  home  and  abroad,  incom- 
patible with  the  undue  emphasis  upon  form,  and 
the    critical    temper    of    the    age    that    refuses 


Liturgical  or  Free  Worship  55 

to  admit  sacerdotal  claims  without  the  best  his- 
torical   proof. 

Notice  the  movement  in  the  Reformed 
churches,  since  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, toward  more  fixed  form  in  worship. 
In  1855,  Mr.  Charles  W.  Baird,  a  minister  of 
our  church,  published  "Eutaxia  or  Presbyterian 
Liturgies,*'  a  book  that  awakened  wide  interest 
in  worship  both  in  this  country  and  in  Great 
Britain.  To  many  of  our  people  it  was  a  sur- 
prise to  be  told  that  the  Reformed  churches 
were  committed  by  their  earliest  and  best  tradi- 
tions in  favour  of  liturgical  uses  in  public  worship. 
About  the  same  time  discussions  were  in  progress 
in  the  German  Reformed  churches  advocating 
a  revival  of  the  liturgical  service  of  the  Refor- 
mation period,  but  modified  to  existing  wants. 

In  1857,  Mr.  Baird  published  "A  Book  of 
Public  Prayer,"  compiled  from  the  formularies 
prepared  by  the  reformers.  In  1855,  St.  Peter's 
Church,  Rochester,  published  its  "Church  Book," 
prepared  by  Mr.  Leonard  W.  Bacon,  notable 
chiefly  for  its  use  of  the  Psalms  in  responsive 
reading.  Experiments  in  greater  dignity  or 
attractiveness  or  popular  participation  in  wor- 
ship rapidly  followed  by  individual  congre- 
gations, but  experiments  without  counsel  or  con- 
cert and  with  no  definite  and  intelligent  ideal. 


56  Public  Worship 

The  increasing  number  of  them  proved  at 
last  the  seriousness  of  the  movement,  and  has 
led  to  organization  and  concerted  study  and 
enterprise.  The  Church  Service  Society  of 
Scotland,  organized  in  1865,  has  a  membership 
of  more  than  five  hundred  ministers  and  has 
published  a  "Book  of  Common  Order"  that 
has  already  passed  through  six  editions.  A 
similar  society  took  form  in  the  Free  Church  of 
Scotland  in  1891,  that  led  to  the  issuing  of  the 
most  serviceable  manual,  "  The  New  Directory  for 
Public  Worship."  The  Church  Service  Society  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  of  this  country  was 
organized  in  1895,  to  make  inquiry  as  to  the 
present  conduct  of  public  worship,  to  study  the 
modes  of  worship  in  the  different  branches  of  the 
church,  and  to  do  such  work  in  the  preparation 
of  forms  of  service  in  an  orderly  worship  "as  may 
help  to  guard  against  the  contrary  evils  of  con- 
fusion and  ritualism,  and  promote  reverence 
and  beauty  in  the  worship  of  God  in  His  Holy 
House,  unity  and  the  spirit  of  common  praise 
and  prayer  among  the  people."  It  was  no 
doubt  the  influence  of  this  society  that  led  the 
General  Assembly  to  appoint  a  special  com- 
mittee on  a  book  of  worship,  and  to  the  official 
approval  of  their  work,  "Common  Worship," 
published    in    1906. 


Liturgical  or  Free  Worship  57 

Any  question  of  worship  resolves  itself  finally 
into  liturgy  or  free  worship. 

A  liturgy  in  its  simplest  meaning,  as  some 
fixed  form  of  worship,  is  almost  universal  in  the 
Christian  Church.  The  Westminster  divines 
in  preparing  an  order  of  worship  recognized  the 
liturgical  idea.  But  this  is  not  the  common  idea 
of  liturgy.  It  is  the  question  between  elaborate 
and  fixed  worship  or  simple  and  free;  especially 
between  a  fixed  form  of  prayer  and  free  prayer. 
We  ought  to  be  in  the  condition  to  examine  the 
question  fairly  and  thoroughly  by  our  reasons 
and  not  by  our  prejudices. 

The  present  tendencies  in  the  Church  and  the 
evident  defects  of  our  worship  call  upon  us  to 
take  some  intelligent  position,  some  earnest 
action.  Such  position  in  regard  to  worship 
can  only  be  taken  after  a  knowledge  of  historic 
worship  and  the  present  spiritual  life  of  the 
Church. 

What  Are  the  Advantages  of  Liturgical 
Worship?  —  It  makes  use  of  the  riches  of  past 
religious  life,  the  collects  and  litanies  and 
hymns  of  the  ages.  The  Psalms  have  been 
the  voice  of  the  race  in  religious  aspiration, 
and  other  forms,  the  voice  of  single  souls  or 
the   slow  accretion   of  ages,    have   in  a  lesser 


58  Public  Worship 

degree  performed  the  same  oflSce  in  worship. 
For  fifteen  hundred  years  the  Church  has  ex- 
pressed her  adoration  of  the  Trinity  in  the  ''Te 
Deum  Laudamus,''  teaching  in  all  these  ages  with 
almost  unequalled  majesty  of  expression  the 
truths  of  the  Godhead,  the  Incarnation,  the  Atone- 
ment, and  the  unity  and  triumph  of  the  Church. 
The  Litany,  at  least  one  thousand  years  old,  no 
more  belongs  to  the  Church  of  England  than  the 
Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Apostles'  Creed.  "We 
know  of  no  human  composition,"  said  Dr. 
Charles  Hodge,  "that  can  be  compared  with 
it."  We  could  far  better  spare  some  of  the 
treatises  of  the  Institutes  than  Calvin's  Con- 
fession of  sin  beginning:  "Almighty  nd  most 
merciful  Father,  we  have  erred  and  strayed  from 
Thy  ways  like  lost  sheep."  We  could  better 
spare  some  whole  works  of  the  Fathers  than 
the  prayer  attributed  to  Chrysostom  closing 
with  the  words:  "Fulfil  now,  O  Lord,  the 
desires  and  petitions  of  Thy  servants,  as  may  be 
most  expedient  for  them:  granting  us  in  this 
world  the  knowledge  of  Thy  truth,  and  in  the 
world  to  come  life  everlasting.  Amen."  We 
use  the  hymns  of  the  ages;  why  should  we  not 
use  the  forms  that  fittingly  express  the  confession 
and  praise  and  adoration  of  the  Church  through 
so  many  ages? 


Liturgical  or  Free  Worship  59 

A  liturgy  cultivates  the  sense  of  historic  Chris- 
tianityy  connects  us  with  the  universal  Church, 
and  corrects  the  evils  of  isolation  and  division. 

How  shall  the  little  band  of  believers  over  which 
you  are  the  leader  be  made  to  feel  the  dignity 
and  glory  of  their  position?  How  shall  the 
commonness  and  even  pettiness  of  life  be  made 
to  sink  before  the  possible  grandeur  of  sonship? 
It  is  by  connecting  this  little  company  of  wor- 
shippers with  the  Church  universal,  making 
them  feel  that  they  are  the  sentinels  or  pioneers 
of  a  great  host,  making  them  feel  that  they  are 
connected  with  the  unseen  world  and  the  great 
army  of  saints,  *'who  from  their  labours  rest." 

Some  stately  memorial  of  the  past  subdues  the 
mind  and  puts  us  under  the  spell  of  the 

"  Dead  but  sceptred  Kings 
Who  rule  us  from  their  urns." 

The  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Apostles'  Creed,  the 
Gloria  in  Excelsis,  are  the  voices  of  the  Uni- 
versal Church  and  to  the  devout  sense  the  wor- 
shipper stands  not  simply  in  a  little  local  church, 
with  its  narrow  walls,  and  its  too  narrow  life, 
but  in  a  world-temple,  and  feels  the  touch  of 
hands  long  gone  and  hears  the  accent  of  voices 
long-hushed. 

Such  forms  are  often  majestic.  They  lift 
up  the  soul.     They  give  elevation  of  mind  and 


60  Public  Worship 

heart  in  worship.  They  deal  with  essential 
and  universal  truth  and  not  accidental,  and 
so  they  purge  the  mind  from  narrowness,  and 
give  strength  to  the  longings  for  the  unity  of 
the  faith.  They  train  in  reverence,  and  in  the 
sense  of  kinship  with  other  minds,  they  are  the 
educators  of  social  worship. 

A  liturgy  may  always  be  a  worthy  expression 
of  worship. 

It  is  a  consensus  of  opinion  and  feeling;  the 
voice  of  the  Church  and  not  the  voice  of  an 
individual,  and  so  it  is  more  apt  to  be  adequate 
in  the  expression  of  truth.  Some  of  the  liturgies 
of  the  Church  have  preserved  the  truth  through 
dark  and  perilous  times.  If  the  Reformed  Church 
of  France  had  clearly  expressed  in  liturgy  the 
Divinity  of  Christ,  it  is  claimed  by  some  that 
unbelief  had  not  so  easily  swept  away  the  founda- 
tions of  so  many  of  her  churches. 

Scriptural  in  doctrine,  the  liturgy  has  a  dig- 
nity and  stateliness  of  style  that  suggests  some- 
thing of  the  majesty  and  glory  of  the  Eternal 
One.  It  is  free  from  the  commonplaces  and 
disconnected  petitions  and  unholy  familiarities 
that  sometimes  mar  extemporaneous  prayer.  It 
is  in  keeping  with  the  growing  taste  of  thought- 
ful religion.  A  cultivated  heart  is  offended  at 
the  irreverent  use  of  the  names  of  God,  at  the 


Liturgical  or  Free  Worship  61 

familiarity  of  speech  in  addressing  God,  hardly- 
using  the  respect  of  an  earthly  court;  at  the 
egotism  with  which  the  subjective  states  of  the 
preacher  are  rehearsed  before  the  people  for 
their  petitions;  at  the  partial  and  narrow  views 
of  'the  soul's  need  too  often  voiced  in  extem- 
poraneous prayer.  Such  minds  believe  with 
Coleridge  that  prayer  is  the  highest  and  noblest 
exercise  of  the  human  spirit,  and  that  no  single 
mind  out  of  its  own  state  or  knowledge  can 
adequately  represent  the  hearts  of  a  congre- 
gation. Fitting  forms  must  be  the  work  of 
groups  of  men  and  of  ages  of  approved  use,  use 
blessed  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  At  least,  they  say 
that  the  personal  views  and  inconsequent  think- 
ing and  crude  speech  that  sometimes  go  for 
public  prayer  cannot  represent  us  before  God. 
And  the  Church  should  be  saved  from  such 
misfortune.  Whatever  be  the  qualifications  of 
her  ministers,  her  worship  should  be  expressive 
of  her  life  and  of  her  God. 

We  profess  to  believe  in  the  restoration  of 
the  whole  man  by  Christianity.  We  must  not 
proscribe  the  sense  of  form  and  fitness.  We 
must  consecrate  all  beauty  of  truth  and  speech 
in  the  worship  of  God.  Professor  McFadyen  in 
his  "Prayers  of  the  Bible"  makes  the  discrimi- 
nating comparison  between    free  and  liturgical 


62  Public  Worship 

prayer.  "  In  free  prayer,  not  only  the  speaker's 
education,  but  even  his  temperament  and  the 
condition  of  his  health,  will  affect  the  nature 
of  the  prayers  he  offers.  He  will  not  always 
be  able  to  say  the  thing  he  would.  He  may 
be  dull  or  depressed,  and  this  mood  may  be 
reflected  in  his  prayers;  or  —  especially  in 
his  earlier  efforts  —  he  may  suffer  from  nervous- 
ness or  temporary  loss  of  memory,  and  this  may 
easily  disturb  the  devotional  tempe  if  the 
congregation.  Public  prayer  is  attended  bj' 
all  the  difficulties  that  beset  public  speech  gener- 
ally. Only  men  of  great  natural  gift,  wide 
reading,  and  much  experience,  can  address  their 
fellows  extempore  in  language  that  is  really 
noble  and  graceful;  and  though,  in  the  moment 
of  prayer,  feeling  may  be  exalted,  and  a  man 
may  express  a  better  and  deeper  self  than  he 
can  in  the  more  critical  atmosphere  of  a  public 
meeting,  it  does  not  follow  that  his  exaltation 
will  exempt  him  from  idiosyncrasies  and  errors 
due  to  inexperience,  temperament  or  the  state 
of  his  health. 

"A  liturgy  affords  an  absolute  safeguard  in 
cases  of  this  kind.  The  speaker  may  be  de- 
pressed, but  the  prayer  will  not  suffer;  for  it  is 
not  so  much  he  that  prays  as  the  Church  that 
prays  in  him,  and  her  noble  words  may  cheer 


Liturgical  or  Free  Worship  G3 

and  strengthen  not  only  the  congregation,  but 
himself.  He  may  be  nervous  when  he  faces 
the  people,  and  his  thoughts  may  swim  away 
from  him;  but  the  prayer  is  not  impoverished, 
for  he  says  the  thing  that  needs  to  be  said.  As 
a  protection  against  the  eccentricity,  the  frailty 
and  the  inexperience  of  the  individual,  the  service 
of  the  liturgy  is  inestimable."     (P.  227.) 

And  once  more  it  is  claimed  that  a  liturgy  is 
attractive.  It  is  objective  and  yet  spiritual. 
It  arrests  attention  and  calls  for  participation. 
The  responses  of  the  people  are  the  natural 
recognition  of  the  priesthood  of  believers.  It 
is  the  worship  of  the  people;  children  can  be 
trained  in  it,  and  it  is  greatly  loved  by  those 
familiar  from  childhood  with  its  forms. 

Does  this  seem  to  any  one  an  over-statement 
of  liturgical  worship.?  It  will  seem  less  than 
truth  to  those  trained  in  its  use. 

The  Disadvantages  of  Liturgical  Wor- 
ship.— Such  worship  is  historic  rather  than  present. 
It  admires  the  past  and  dwells  in  venerable  use, 
and  may  ignore  the  present  need.  Its  very  state- 
liness  of  form  may  help  to  take  it  out  of  the 
present  life,  and  make  it  only  a  far-away  echo. 
The  religious  life  passes  through  progressive  stages, 
and  a  liturgy  may  be  only  a  monument,  not  a  living 


64  Public  Worship 

voice.  It  does  not  allow  the  spontaneous  expres- 
sion of  devotion.  It  does  not  cultivate  the  grace 
of  personal  and  fervent  petition.  "  If  religion  is  a 
real  and  living  thing,  the  individual  can  hardly 
help  feeling  at  times  the  impulse  to  express  his 
emotion  in  words  of  his  own,  and  he  ought  not 
to  be  deprived  of  this  liberty  which  is  his  birth- 
right as  a  son  of  the  Heavenly  Father.  In  the 
prayers  of  the  Bible,  pious  men  speak  as  they 
are  moved  by  circumstance;  out  of  the  depths 
each  man  cries  in  his  own  way.  And  this  great 
lesson  of  the  Bible  must  never  be  forgotten  or 
repudiated.  We  are  often  told  that  Jesus 
prayed,  but  seldom  what  He  prayed.  He  does 
not  bind  a  yoke  upon  the  neck  of  his  disciples; 
He  wishes  us  to  be  ourselves."  (McFadyen, 
p.  234.)  To  the  Church  Congress  at  Providence, 
Phillips  Brooks  spoke  for  the  formal  recognition 
in  the  Prayer-book  of  the  liberty  of  extempora- 
neous prayer.  Says  Doctor  Allen  in  his  life 
of  Bishop  Brooks :  "  The  paper  on  'Liturgical 
Growth'  shows  that  he  keenly  felt  the  restriction 
which  made  it  impossible  to  pray  with  an  open 
heart  at  critical  moments,  when  the  freedom  of 
the  soul  should  be  granted.  Thus  he  was  indig- 
nant, and  also  amused,  that,  when  the  city  of 
Chicago  was  in  flames,  the  General  Convention, 
then  in  session,  showed  its  sympathy  and  asked 


Liturgical  or  Free  Worship  65 

for  the  divine  aid  by  reciting  the  Litany,  while 
the  name  of  the  city  and  the  awful  occasion 
were  passed  over  in  silence.'*     (Vol.  II,  p.  317.) 

A  liturgy  does  not  meet  the  need  of  all  natures. 
It  is  a  matter  of  temperament  and  training  and 
conviction.  Some  natures  crave  the  elements 
found  in  liturgies.  Their  reverence,  their  deli- 
cacy of  feeling  are  satisfied  in  no  other  way. 
Others  equally  demand  freedom  and  spontaneity 
and  are  offended  by  unchangeable  form.  Simi- 
larity or  uniformity  in  worship  is  not  a  mark  of 
spiritual  unity.  It  is  possible  that  through 
training  there  may  be  a  gradual  approachment 
in  the  different  forms  of  Christian  worship.  But 
the  fact  remains  now  that  we  must  have  a 
variety  of  worship  to  express  the  life  of  the 
Church  and  meet  her  needs. 

Liturgy  tends  to  elaborate  form,  to  the  over- 
estimate of  organization  and  ritual,  and  so  to 
a  possible  loss  of  spirituality.  "Where  the 
same  words  are  repeated  week  after  week,  the 
spirit  may  easily  grow  insensible  to  their  mean- 
ing." A  simple  and  free  worship  is  the  easiest 
to  maintain  in    sincerity  and    spiritual  fervour. 

"We  must  be  content  with  simplicity,  direct- 
ness, pathos,  reverence,  fervour,  and  if  we  are 
less  vividly  conscious  than  those  who  use  a  lit- 
urgy that  we  are  walking  in  the  footsteps  of 


66  Public  Worship 

the  saints  of  other  centuries,  we  may  find  com- 
pensation in  a  closer  and  more  direct  relation 
to  the  actual  life  of  the  men,  women,  and  children 
who  are  waiting  with  ourselves  for  the  mercy 
and  pity  and  help  of  God.  We  lose  less  than 
we  may  gain.  But  we  shall  gain  nothing  and 
lose  everything,  if  we  do  not  remember  the  true 
purpose  for  which  prayers  are  offered.  They 
are  not  intended  to  afford  a  special  form  of 
gratification  to  men  of  taste  who  feel  no  awe  in 
the  presence  of  God's  greatness,  no  distress  at  the 
remembrance  of  their  sins,  no  strong  desire  for 
forgiveness  and  for  strength  to  live  a  holy  life, 
no  deep  sympathy  with  the  sorrows  and  perils  of 
mankind.  They  are  intended  to  express  to  God 
the  trouble  and  fear  and  trust  of  hearts  which 
have  learned  that  their  only  hope  for  themselves 
and  for  all  men  is  in  Him,  and  to  obtain  from 
God  those  blessings  which  He  has  promised  to 
bestow.  Prayers  are  not  works  of  art;  they  are 
great   spiritual   acts." 

Robert  Browning  in  a  notable  passage  of 
"Christmas  Eve,"  and  no  doubt  from  the  mem- 
ory of  his  boyhood  in  York  Street  Chapel,  South 
London,  has  nobly  expressed  the  worth  of  free 
worship. 

"I,  then,  In  ignorance  and  weakness. 
Taking  God's  help,  have  attained  to  think 


Liturgical  or  Free  Worship  67 

My  heart  does  best  to  receive  in  meekness 

That  mode  of  worship,  as  most  to  his  mind. 

Where  earthly  aids  being  cast  behind. 

His  all  in  all  appears  serene 

With  the  thinnest  human  veil  between. 

Letting  the  mystic  lamps,  the  seven. 

The  many  motions  of  His  Spirit, 

Pass,  as  they  list,  to  earth  from  heaven." 

In  the  present  condition  of  our  churches,  it 
would  be  a  mistake  to  have  any  form,  however 
simple,  imposed  upon  the  single  congregation  by- 
external  authority.  It  is  not  that  we  so  much 
object  to  a  liturgy  as  to  the  fact  of  its  being  fixed. 
It  is  well  to  have  such  a  book  as  "  Common  Wor- 
ship" provided  for  special  cases,  as  our  navy  and 
army,  and  groups  of  people  separate  from  the 
Church.  The  honour  of  religion  demands  that 
there  should  be  some  fixed  forms  for  Baptism, 
the  Lord's  Table,  and  the  Burial  of  the  Dead. 
These  common  and  universal  experiences  of  the 
Church  should  be  voiced  in  something  of  a 
common  language. 

Moreover,  certain  liturgical  elements  can  be 
introduced  into  our  ordinary  worship  without 
danger  to  doctrine  or  spirit,  and  to  the  great 
help  of  the  loyal,  reverent,  and  social  spirit  of 
our  churches.  The  Commandments,  the  Psalms, 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Apostles'  Creed,  are 
the    germs    of     all     liturgies.     The     abuse    of 


68  Public  Worship 

liturgy  is  no  argument  against  its  wise  use.  Sim- 
plicity may  be  combined  with  form  pure  and 
beautiful. 

However,  the  highest  ends  of  worship  in  our 
churches  demand  that  prayer  should  be  for  the 
most  part  free.  At  the  same  time,  fixed  prayer, 
breathing  the  vows  and  lives  of  saints,  is  far 
preferable  to  the  stereotyped  formulas  of  a 
single  soul. 

"The  free  churches  have  something  to  learn 
from  the  dignity,  beauty,  and  order  of  the  lit- 
urgical churches;  while  these,  in  their  turn,  have 
to  learn  from  the  freedom,  the  initiative,  the 
versatility  of  the  others.  The  ideal  church 
would  combine  the  excellencies  of  both,  the 
dignity  of  the  one  with  the  fervour  of  the  other. 
Some  of  her  prayers  would  be  fixed,  and  some 
would  be  free.  The  leader  of  a  congregation 
which  believes  in  free  prayer  should  not  be 
deprived  of  the  right  to  express  his  thoughts  in 
a  way  more  beautiful  and  dignified  than  any 
expression  of  his  own  is  ever  likely  to  be;  the 
leader  in  a  liturgical  church  should  not  be  de- 
prived of  the  right  to  speak  to  God  as  a  man  to 
his  friend.  The  past  may  be  an  inspiration,  but 
it  must  not  be  allowed  to  become  an  incubus. 
We  shall  cherish  and  perpetuate  all  that  is  best 
in  it,  but  we  too  will  create  something  which 


Liturgical  or  Free  Worship  69 

posterity  would  not  willingly  let  die;  and  so 
the  religious  instinct,  as  ancient  as  humanity 
and  as  fresh  as  the  morning,  will  continue  to 
enrich  the  world  forever."  (McFadyen,  p. 
234.) 


LECTURE  V 
PUBLIC  PEAYEE 


OUTLINE 

Prayer  the  Highest  Form  of  Worship. 
The  Spirit  more  than  form. 
Our  freedom  to  attempt  improvement. 

The  Content  or  Matter  of  Public  Prayer. 

Reverential,  representative,  and  comprehensive. 
Special    emphasis    upon   representative    and    com- 
prehensive prayer. 

The  Form  of  Public  Prayer. 

The  language  simple  and  direct,  dignified  and  ele- 
vated.    Marked  by  brevity. 

Free  from  unhallowed  familiarity. 

No  needless  repetition  of  the  names  of  God.  Prayer 
not  a  speech. 

The  wise  union  of  familiar  and  new  forms.  The 
emotional  element. 

The  utterance  of  prayer. 


72 


PUBLIC  PRAYER 

The  highest  form  of  worship  is  prayer.  "  When 
He  calls  His  temple  the  *  house  of  prayer,' " 
says  Calvin,  "God  declares  that  prayer  is  the 
chief  part  of  His  service."  We  shall  not  differ 
from  this  estimate  of  the  value  of  public  prayer. 
We  know  its  supreme  importance;  we  have  felt 
its  peculiar  difl&culties. 

It  is  well  for  us  to  remember,  in  this  dis- 
cussion on  prayer,  that  spirit  and  desire  are 
everything,  and  that  form  has  its  place  in  de- 
votion purely  and  solely  as  a  means  of  uniting 
and  voicing  the  people's  sentiment  and  need; 
that  form  is  to  be  valued  solely  on  the  ground 
of  its  utility;  that  when  any  particular  form 
or  method  has  ceased  to  bring  forth  the  best 
results,  the  old  order  must  change,  giving  place 
to  new. 

With  no  undue  respect  for  form,  there  ought 
to  be  a  zeal  among  us  for  an  increasing  perfec- 
tion in  our  worship.  No  churches  are  so  free 
73 


74  Public  Worship 

or  so  capable  as  our  own,  the  non-liturgical,  of 
perceiving  the  devotional  need  of  the  generation 
and  giving  it  worthy  and  noble  expression. 
There  is  nothing  of  value  in  the  past  which  we 
may  not  claim,  nothing  of  promise  in  the  present 
that  we  may  not  attempt.  "The  world  of 
prayers,  anthems,  responses  —  the  whole  range  of 
Scripture  —  the  vast  stores  of  sacred  music,  sim- 
ple or  embodying  the  highest  art,  the  rich  treas- 
ures of  hymnology,  besides  those  spontaneous 
outbursts  of  unwritten  thanksgiving,  praise,  and 
prayer,  which  are  sometimes  grander  and  more 
pathetic  than  any  written  forms  —  these  all  lie 
open  to  our  choice." 

In  attempting  the  improvement  of  our  part 
in  worship,  in  seeking  the  enrichment  of  the  wor- 
ship of  our  church,  we  will  not  forget  the  part 
taken  by  the  pulpit  in  this  matter.  Crudeness 
there  has  been,  careless  words,  partial  views, 
and  imperfect  forms;  but  with  all  the  faults  of 
extemporaneous  prayer,  the  ministers  have 
often  led  the  people  with  skill  and  correct  taste 
and  devotional  spirit.  It  is  a  tremendous  drain 
upon  spiritual  force  to  attempt  to  lift  a  people 
into  conscious  communion  with  God.  And  if 
any  criticism  is  made  of  present  tendencies,  or 
any  suggestions  of  defect  or  ways  of  betterment, 
it  is  in  the  hope  that  we  may  have  the  clearest 


Public  Prayer  75 

view  and  the  loftiest  ideal  of  our  work  and  priv- 
ilege in  the  holy  place,  as  the  leaders  in  the 
worship  of  God's  house. 

The  nature  of  public  prayer,  as  the  lifting  of 
the  hearts  of  the  people  unitedly  into  communion 
with  God,  indicates  the  matter,  form,  spirit,  and 
preparation  of  such  worship. 

The  Content  or  Matter  of  Public 
Prayer. —  In  general,  it  is  to  be  reverential, 
i.  e.,  elevated  in  thought;  representative,  for  the 
people,  expressive  of  their  life  and  need  and  not 
that  of  the  minister;  outreaching  and  compre- 
hensive, and  not  burdened  too  much  with  personal 
and  local  requests. 

The  thought  of  God  comes  first  and  not  of 
man.  In  this  matter  the  Master  has  given  us 
the  example  in  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Adoration 
is  the  first  attitude,  praise  for  the  glory  of  God's 
nature  and  the  riches  of  His  gifts.  Thoughts 
should  be  dwelt  upon  that  set  forth  the  character 
of  God,  and  make  Him  sensible  to  the  human 
spirit;  all  that  quickens  the  memory  and  shows 
the  past  bright  with  mercies,  all  that  reveals 
the  present  and  leads  the  grateful  heart  God- 
ward  in  thanksgiving.  Confession  should  have  its 
jjlace  with  adoration  and  thanksgivmg.  The 
thought  of   God  brings   knowledge   of    human 


76  Public  Worship 

sin.  The  ideas  of  penitence  should  be  simple 
and  personal,  free  from  any  trace  of  exaggeration, 
to  which  the  people  will  honestly  say  Amen; 
but  such  as  also  to  awaken  the  deeper  conscious- 
ness of  weakness  and  ill-desert.  There  should 
be  petitions  for  forgiveness,  for  renewal  of  life, 
for  growth  in  love  and  service. 

The  prayer  of  intercession  can  never  be  omit- 
ted. It  will  include  special  cases  of  need  in 
the  congregation  and  the  community,  special 
classes  and  conditions  of  men,  special  interests 
of  work,  education,  charity,  society,  and  govern- 
ment, the  spiritual  life  and  work  of  the  Church, 
all  the  questions  that  touch  the  Kingdom  of 
Christ  among  the  nations. 

One  prayer  cannot  contain  all  these  subjects. 
All  these  interests  cannot  be  mentioned  in  a 
single  service.  But  without  having  a  fixed  order 
of  topics,  it  is  possible  to  make  such  a  note  of 
prayer  from  week  to  week  that,  in  the  course 
of  two  or  three  months,  the  people  have  been 
led  to  ask  for  their  various  needs  and  for  the 
larger  necessities  of  the  race. 

Further  emphasis  should  be  given  the  two 
statements  that  public  prayer  is  to  be  repre- 
sentative and  comprehensive. 

The  minister  feels  a  strong  temptation  to 
express   his   personal   need,   aspirations,   desire, 


Public  Prayer  77 

in  prayer,  and  forget  that  prayer  is  the  worship 
of  the  people,  and  that  he  is  to  be  simply  the 
leader  of  that  worship.  Here  the  priestly  idea 
of  the  ministry  comes  in,  if  ever.  He  goes  to 
the  pulpit  from  moments  of  meditation  and 
devotion;  he  may  be  exalted  in  his  own  spirit; 
he  feels  the  immediate  relation  of  his  soul  to  God; 
the  message  with  which  his  heart  is  full  will 
unconsciously  shape  and  colour  petition.  His 
prayer  may  be  truly  devotional  in  spirit.  The 
people  may  recognize  its  sincerity  and  fervency. 
But  they  will  listen  rather  than  join  in  it.  Such 
prayers  run  in  the  grooves  of  the  minister's 
individuality;  they  are  for  private  use  and  not 
for  the  pulpit.  They  are  subject  to  individual 
moods  of  feeling,  or  phases  of  religious  thought 
and  experience.  They  may  even  voice  mor- 
bidness or  eccentricity,  so  that  the  congregation 
not  only  do  not  unite  in  the  prayer,  but  feel  it 
wrong  thus  to  pray. 

Such  subjective  prayers,  as  they  may  be  called, 
are  the  easiest  to  offer,  but  in  the  best  sense  they 
are  not  public  prayers;  they  fail  to  touch  and 
express  the  need  and  desire  of  the  congregation. 

This  is  not  a  fanciful  picture.  Whether  the 
failure  of  the  pulpit  to  make  prominent  the 
intercessory  character  of  public  prayer  is  due  to 
the  scientific  and  critical  thought  of  the  day,  that 


78  Public  Worship 

leads  to  the  view  of  prayer  as  devout  aspiration 
and  valuable  solely  for  its  reflex  influence,  it 
is  certain  that  there  has  been  a  marked  tendency 
in  cultivated  pulpits  to  forget  the  wants  of  the 
multitude. 

A  few  years  ago  a  devout  American  entered 
the  American  Chapel  in  Paris  on  Sunday  and 
thus  describes  the  prayer  of  the  pastor,  who  was 
a  true  representative  of  the  higher  order  of 
American  Congregational  ministers,  intellect- 
ual, spiritual,  and  refined.  "His  prayer  lifted 
the  souls  of  the  hearers  to  the  portals  of  heaven. 
There  were  in  it  devout  adoration,  holy  med- 
itations, fervent  aspirations,  a  positive  if  not 
pronounced  confession  of  sins  and  prayer  for 
forgiveness;  but  all  moved  upon  the  plane  of 
the  suppliant's  own  experiences.  A  lofty  plane 
that  was;  no  one  could  truly  follow  him  without 
feeling  the  divine  touch;  but  there  was  little  or 
no  attempt  to  present  the  objective  wants  even 
of  the  congregation,  much  less  of  the  great 
world." 

The  prayer  should  touch  now  and  again  the 
varied  interests  and  wants  of  the  people.  Toils 
and  burdens  of  daily  life,  the  anxieties  of  parents, 
the  hopes  of  children,  the  temptation  and  battle 
of  solitary  souls  —  the  pastor  must  put  himself 
in  the  place  of  the  people;  this  marvellous  picture 


Public  Prayer  79 

of  human  sin  and  conflict,  of  toil  and  reward, 
of  hope  and  fear,  must  be  in  his  heart,  and  then 
self  will  be  forgotten  in  the  wonderful  and  trying 
privilege  of  praying  for  men. 

"Doctor  CandHsh  of  the  Free  Church  of 
Scotland  in  prayer  made  himself  the  mere  mouth- 
piece, mind,  and  heart  of  that  great  multitude, 
and  the  overpowering  burden  became  to  him 
such  a  burden  as  wings  are  to  an  eagle.  The 
very  first  syllables,  heard  in  that  large,  melodious 
utterance  by  the  most  distant  gallery,  recalled 
and  reunited  all  present  on  the  broadest  platform 
of  their  common  presence  and  their  common 
need.  The  voice  became  a  river  of  supplication 
which  filled  and  flooded  the  church  and  lifted 
every  soul  with  it  on  a  God  ward  wave." 

"The  most  sacred  function  of  the  Christian 
ministry  is  praying.  I  can  bear  this  witness: 
that  never  in  the  study,  in  the  most  absorbed 
moments;  never  on  the  street,  in  those  chance 
inspirations  that  everybody  is  subject  to,  when 
I  am  lifted  up  highest;  never  in  any  company 
where  friends  are  the  sweetest  and  dearest  — 
never  in  any  circumstances  in  life  is  there  any- 
thing that  is  to  me  so  touching  as  when  I  stand, 
in  ordinary  good  health,  before  my  great  con- 
gregation to  pray  for  them.  Hundreds  of  times, 
as  I  rose  to  pray  and  glanced  at  the  congregation. 


80  Public  Worship 

I  could  not  keep  back  the  tears.  There  came 
to  my  mind  such  a  sense  of  their  wants,  there 
were  so  many  hidden  sorrows,  there  were  so 
many  weights  and  burdens,  there  were  so  many 
doubts,  there  were  so  many  states  of  weakness, 
there  were  so  many  perils,  there  were  such 
histories  —  not  world  histories  but  eternal- 
world  histories  —  my  soul  so  longed  for  them, 
that  it  seemed  to  me  as  if  I  could  scarcely  open 
my  mouth  to  speak  for  them.  And  when  I 
take  my  people  and  carry  them  before  God  to 
plead  for  them,  I  never  plead  for  myself  as  I  do 
for  them  —  I  never  could.  It  seems  as  if  God 
permitted  me  to  lay  my  hand  upon  the  very 
tree  of  life,  and  to  shake  down  from  it  both  leaves 
and  fruit  for  the  healing  of  my  people.  And  it 
is  better  than  a  sermon;  it  is  better  than  an 
exhortation.  He  that  knows  how  to  pray  for 
his  people,  I  had  almost  said,  need  not  trouble 
himself  to  preach  for  them  or  to  them;  though 
that  is  an  exaggeration  of  course."  (Beecher's 
"Yale  Lectures,"  II  :  46.) 

Such  prayer  will  make  the  worship  properly 
attractive.  The  social  element  will  be  powerful. 
The  people  will  be  drawn  to  the  ministry  that 
understands  their  needs  and  voices  them  in 
worship.  The  worship  is  theirs  and  theirs  the 
blessing. 


Public  Prayer  81 

Another  wrong  tendency  is  to  make  the  public 
prayer  too  narrow  and  local  in  its  range.  And 
the  evil  lies  close  to  a  virtue.  It  is  the  temptation 
of  an  earnest  and  devoted  ministry.  The  parish 
is  his  world.  The  spiritual  work  of  the  church, 
his  particular  church,  is  the  consuming  passion 
of  his  life.  And  the  prayers,  direct,  specific,  and 
personal,  voice  the  earnest  sincerity  of  the  life. 
Prayers  of  this  nature  are  to  be  desired,  as  far 
as  they  go,  but  they  do  not  go  far  enough.  They 
lack  Gospel  breadth.  And  they  fail  of  the 
larger  blessings  of  prayer  because  their  desires 
are  not  large  enough.  The  late  Doctor  Clark 
of  the  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  said 
that  if  he  were  a  pastor  in  Yokohama  he  would 
pray  every  Sunday  for  Christian  work  beyond 
the  Mississippi,  for  the  sake  of  Yokohama.  You 
cannot  afford  to  turn  the  chief  devotional  thought 
of  the  people  in  upon  themselves;  it  means  the 
shrivelling  of  spiritual  life.  The  small  and 
feeble  churches  especially,  whose  wants  are  press- 
ing and  horizon  narrow,  need  to  be  taught  to 
pray,  "Thy  Kingdom  come."  We  are  to  help 
men  in  prayer  to  see  the  spiritual  significance 
of  forces  and  events,  to  feel  the  sacredness  of 
common  life,  and  the  oneness  of  all  races  and 
lands  in  the  purpose  and  work  of  the  Gospel. 
This  gives  a  wealth  of  material  and  breadth  of 


82  Public  Worship 

spirit  to  public  prayer,  as  rich  and  broad  as  the 
Kingdom  of  Christ.  And  the  Kingdom  of 
Christ  covers  broadly  the  entire  range  of  human 
action  and  endurance.  Not  a  vital  interest 
of  the  immediate  community,  nor  a  great  con- 
cern of  the  remotest  people;  not  a  department 
of  human  activity,  the  home,  the  school,  the 
shop,  the  Church,  the  government,  that  escapes 
the  eye  of  such  worship,  because  such  belongs 
to  the  spiritual  realm  as  means  of  its  develop- 
ment and  final  expression. 

"The  prayers  of  the  Universal  Church  must 
be  inspired  with  the  chief  of  all  prayers,  *Thy 
Kingdom  come,*  the  undertone  of  which  must 
be  heard  through  every  special  petition.  They 
must  lead  the  worshippers  to  forget  self  as  much 
as  possible  by  bringing  the  general  interests  of 
men  before  their  minds.  They  must  pray  not 
only  for  the  rulers  and  the  laws,  but  for  the 
elevation  of  the  poor,  for  the  progress  of  knowl- 
edge and  art  and  literature,  for  union  among 
the  nations  of  the  West,  and  for  their  influence 
over  the  weaker  races  of  mankind.  Worship 
must  be,  to  be  brief,  a  bringing  before  God  of 
the  real  needs  of  the  whole  community;  the 
hallowing  of  life  in  all  its  branches  must  be  con- 
ducted here  in  the  way  of  aspiration."  (Free- 
mantle.     "Bampton  Lectures,'*  p.  302.) 


Public  Prayer  83 

It  has  been  finely  said  that  such  public  peti- 
tion becomes  the  cry  of  a  world.  "Listeners 
are  made  to  feel  themselves  a  part  of  that 
humanity,  whose  minutest  and  apparently  least 
spiritual  wants  are  under  divine  observation 
and    care." 

Particular  cases  of  need  in  the  parish  will  not 
be  omitted  in  the  prayer  of  the  wise  pastor. 
Petitions  for  help  in  sickness  and  sorrow  and  loss 
are  the  peculiar  and  necessary  expressions  of 
communion  of  faith  and  love.  And  yet  the 
most  pressing  and  personal  needs  will  find  their 
richest  answer  in  the  prayer  for  the  larger  world. 
Richard  Baxter  testifies  that  he  was  unable  to 
comfort  his  people  at  a  certain  time  in  his  min- 
istry, until  he  led  them  to  think  of  and  love  and 
pray  for  the  work  of  Christ  in  heathen  lands. 
This  ideal  of  comprehensiveness  in  public 
prayer  was  largely  realized  in  the  ministration 
of  the  late  Dr.  W.  M.  Taylor  of  New  York.  It 
is  said  of  his  prayers  that  "their  richness  of 
spirit  is  matched  by  their  compass.  He  passes 
from  one  concern  of  Christian  love  to  another 
until  you  feel  yourself  partaking  of  the  mind 
of  Christ  in  its  regard  for  human  brotherhood." 

The  Form  of  Public  Prayer. —  The  nature 
of  prayer  as  pure   address  to  God  will  direct 


84  Public  Worship 

us  as  to  the  form  of  public  prayer  as  well 
as  the  subject  matter.  It  is  proper  that  the 
individuality  of  the  minister  should  be  felt  in 
the  choice  and  arrangement  of  words,  in  the 
tones  of  voice  and  the  manner  of  prayer.  He 
must  be  heard  and  felt  to  be  a  true  leader.  But 
even  here  the  subjective  element  will  be  so  con- 
trolled by  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  worship  as 
not  unduly  to  intrude,  not  to  call  attention  to 
itself  and  prevent  the  united  participation  of 
the  congregation. 

The  language  of  prayer  should  be  simple  and 
direct,  yet  dignified  and  elevated.  Simplicity 
and  directness  are  demanded  by  sincerity  of 
worship,  and  something  of  elevation  by  the 
nature  of  God,  to  whom  we  go.  Heart-felt 
adoration  and  desire  can  never  dwell  needlessly 
upon  the  language  in  the  way  of  rhetorical 
finish  or  ornament.  The  paper  describing  a 
certain  prayer  as  "the  most  eloquent  ever 
addressed  to  a  Boston  audience"  was  no  doubt 
accurate.  It  was  addressed  to  an  audience. 
It  could  not  be  spoken  to  God.  The  prayers 
of  the  Bible  are  marked  by  directness.  Sim- 
plicity is  the  form  of  true  feeling  and  pure  taste. 
"The  use  of  soaring  polysyllables,  of  exaggerated 
expressions,  of  poetic  quotations,  of  lengthy 
sentences,  of  complicated  syntax,  of  antiquated 


Public  Prayer  85 

forms  of  language  or  thought  —  all  this  goes  to 
defeat  the  end  for  which  prayer  is  offered." 

This  does  not  prevent  the  use  of  imagination 
in  prayer,  and  the  forms  of  highest  beauty. 
Imagination  must  be  used  to  break  the  dulness 
of  worldly  states  and  lead  the  soul  to  apprehend 
God.  And  strong  feeling  expresses  itself  in 
symbols  of  beauty.  The  Bible  prayers  are 
direct,  but  full  of  suggestion.  And  they  some- 
times take  the  forms  of  the  highest  poetry. 
"But  it  does  not  follow  th^t  such  language  should 
be  imitated.  When  a  prosaic  mind  expresses 
itself  thus,  there  is  always  the  suspicion  of 
artificiality;  and  better  a  thousand  times  that 
prayers  be  unadorned,  even  clumsy,  than  arti- 
ficial. The  garnishing  of  prayer  with  quotations 
from  the  poets  and  the  hymn  writers  is  a  breach 
of  literary  taste  as  well  as  of  religious  propriety. 
.  .  .  A  child  does  not  quote  poetry  when 
he  talks  confidentially  to  his  father."  (Mc- 
Fadyen,  p.  202.) 

At  times,  however,  under  the  exaltation  of 
heart  and  mind  in  worship,  the  imagination  will 
speak  in  beauty  of  word  and  suggestiveness  of 
symbol  that  will  be  in  the  highest  form  devo- 
tional. Such  style  should  not  be  sought,  but  take 
form  spontaneously  from  spiritual  fervour. 

*'How    constantly    through    his    prayers    he 


86  Public  Worship 

brought  them  into  sympathy  with  God,  reveal- 
ing the  divine  sympathy  to  them,  and  how  he 
pictured,  as  if  he  saw  it,  the  company  of  the 
redeemed  in  glory!  Thou  art  gathering  these 
multitudes  which  no  man  can  number.  From 
every  age  Thou  hast  garnered  there;  for  us 
there  is  this  hope  and  this  joyful  antici- 
pation. We  beseech  of  Thee  that  we  may 
be  able  to  live  this  life  in  the  body  with  a 
constant  faith  of  the  great  life  of  the  Spirit; 
that  we  may  never  be  discouraged  nor  beaten 
down;  that  we  may  know  that  we  are  the  King's 
sons;  though  exiled,  in  disguise  and  poverty, 
and  even  cast  into  shame,  may  we  remember 
our  birthright,  the  pleasure  that  awaits  us,  the 
crown,  the  throne,  the  sceptre,  the  glory  of  im- 
mortal and  perfect  youth  where  Thou  art. 
When  the  former  things  shall  have  passed  away, 
when  sorrow  and  dying  shall  have  fled,  when 
Thou  shalt  have  wiped  the  tear  from  every  eye, 
and  when  Thou  dost  comfort  us  even  as  a 
father  comforts  his  child,  then,  in  that  blessed 
land  where  Thou  dwellest,  what  will  be  the 
memory  of  the  trouble  that  we  have  had  on 
earth."  (Barrow's  "Beecher,"  p.  130.) 
N  Prayer  should  be  marked  by  brevity.  Need- 
less phrases,  mere  rhetorical  repetition  and 
amplification,  all  should  be  avoided  that  makes 


Public  Prayer  87 

the  prayer  dull  and  prolix.  The  minds  of  the 
people  will  wander,  and  so  ends  the  spirit  of 
worship.  The  longest  prayers  of  the  Bible,  such 
as  the  confession  of  Ezra  and  the  prayer  of  Solo- 
mon at  the  dedication  of  the  Temple,  can  be 
spoken  in  eight  minutes,  and  most  prayers  take 
but  two  or  three  minutes.  Directness  demands 
brevity.  If  we  have  definite  desires  and  are 
intent  upon  them  we  shall  be  brief.  Our  public 
prayers  are  too  long.  Their  weary  length  is 
often  a  sign  of  haziness  and  listlessness.  The 
large  subject-matter  of  prayer,  that  often  fills 
the  heart  of  the  pastor,  can  be  covered  by  wise 
choice  and  proportion  on  different  Sundays. 

We  should  avoid  all  unhallowed  familiarity 
in  public  prayer. 

Through  Christ  we  may  come  in  confidence, 
pleading  a  Father's  love,  but  never  without 
reverence.  The  democratic  spirit  of  America, 
regardless  of  position  and  authority,  is  some- 
times seen  in  the  careless  spirit  of  prayer.  The 
colloquialisms  of  common  speech  cannot  voice 
the  deepest  needs  of  the  soul.  Words  of  endear- 
ment that  may  be  used  in  secret  are  irreverent 
in  public  prayer.  Such  names  applied  to  Jesus 
are  weak  and  sentimental.  We  have  no  right 
to  speak  to  God  as  to  an  equal.  If  we  do,  it  is 
not  worship. 


88  Public  Worship 

We  should  avoid  needless  repetition  of  the 
names  of  God,  as  our  Heavenly  Father,  at  the 
beginning  of  each  request,  and  a  mechanical 
uniformity  of  phrase  as,  "Ever  living  and  blessed 
God,"  "Grant  to  us  we  beseech  thee,"  and  the 
like.  Such  monotony  is  mechanical  and  not 
the  natural  expression  of  the  soul's  own  life. 
Epithets  of  God  should  be  used  appropriate  to 
the  thought.  Bible  prayers  are  rich  in  such 
suggestions,  and  a  proper  study  of  such  phrases 
will  give  variety  without  hindrance  to  reality 
and    simplicity. 

We  shall  not  preach  in  our  prayers,  if  we 
remember  the  nature  of  prayer,  and  our  place 
as  leaders  of  worship.  Some  men  are  tempted 
to  unfold  their  system  of  theology,  their  per- 
sonal and  ecclesiastical  likes  and  dislikes,  or 
make  a  political  confession  of  faith. 

"Prayer  is  speech,  but  it  ought  not  to  be  a 
speech.  It  is  the  speech  of  the  heart  to  God, 
but  it  must  not  be  a  speech  to  men  in  the  form 
of  prayer.  This  is  one  of  the  dangers  of  public 
prayer,  where  the  presence  of  other  men  can 
hardly  be  altogether  forgotten  —  an  especial 
danger  for  one  whose  profession  is  preaching." 
(McFadyen,  p.  207.) 

While  public  prayer  should  never  degenerate 
into    a    sermon    or   historical    narrative,    might 


Public  Prayer  89 

there  not  be  a  review  of  well-known  facts  of 
personal  or  public  life?  Some  Biblical  prayers 
are  largely  narrative.  "Goodness  and  loving 
kindness,"  were  not  allowed  to  degenerate  into 
empty  phrases;  they  were  filled  with  radiant 
and  indisputable  historical  facts.  And  if  our 
prayers  are  to  be  personal  and  particular,  sincere 
voices  of  the  heart,  they  must  dwell  upon 
specific  facts  of  inner  and  outer  experience. 
Only  thus  can  the  true  spirit  of  gratitude  and 
penitence,  and  aspiration  be  awakened.  How- 
ever, we  shall  avoid  vain  repetitions  and  remem- 
ber that  God  knows  before  we  ask. 

There  ought  to  be  a  wise  union  of  familiar 
and  neiv  forms  of  prayer. 

There  are  certain  standing  wants,  old  as 
humanity,  which  ought  to  be  voiced  whenever 
men  come  together  to  worship.  The  best  ex- 
pression of  such  wants  is  not  in  novelty  of  lan- 
guage, but  in  terms  familiar  and  sacred  from 
long  use  and  association,  the  language  of 
Scripture  or  the  prayers  of  the  Church.  The 
devotional  parts  of  the  Bible  are  often  the 
inspiration  of  our  desires,  and  the  best  expression 
of  them,  but  they  should  not  be  quoted  care- 
lessly, so  as  to  make  prayer  incongruous,  and 
destroy  the  spirit  of  free  and  living  men.  There 
are  ever-present  needs  that  have  new  origin  or 


90  Public  Worship 

relation  that  will  demand  new  and  personal 
forms  of  speech.  Exact  fitness  to  thought  and 
feeling,  and  not  novelty  should  be  the  aim  of 
the  pulpit. 

The  emotional  nature  should  be  felt  in  all 
worship.  Not  in  the  reason  but  in  conscience 
and  feeling  are  the  finest  organs  of  spiritual 
vision.  He  that  loveth  knoweth  God.  And 
he  that  loves  most  knows  best  the  unspoken 
depths  of  the  human  heart  and  can  best  awake 
the  sense  of  God.  Prayer  is  preeminently  the 
language  of  the  heart. 

The  utterance  of  prayer  should  be  suited  to  its 
nature,  in  a  natural  and  dignified  tone,  not  with 
the  rapidity  that  suggests  trifling  and  irrever- 
ence, nor  with  the  loud  and  boisterous  voice 
that  magnifies  too  much  the  physical  element. 
Earnestness  is  never  synonymous  with  noise. 

"Two  things  may  be  mentioned  in  particular 
as  desirable  to  be  avoided  in  prayer,"  says 
John  Angell  James  in  "An  Earnest  Ministry." 
"One  is  quickness  and  rapidity  of  utterance,  a 
fault  young  preachers  are  very  apt  to  fall  into; 
and  objectionable  both  because  it  has  an  irrever- 
ent appearance,  and  also  because  the  people 
cannot  intelligently  follow.  The  other  is 
boisterousness,  which  is  not  to  be  confounded 
with  earnestness.  Such  vehemence,  like  a  violent 


Public  Prayer  91 

blast  of  wind,  puts  out  the  languid  flame  of 
devotion,  when  a  gentle  breeze  would  fan  it 
into  greater  intensity." 

The  sum  of  the  matter  is  that  public  prayer 
should  be  spirihial  and  sympathetic,  true  and 
tender,  dignified  and  devout. 

Such  was  the  prayer  of  Brainerd,  the  saintly 
apostle  to  the  Indians.  He  addressed  God, 
"  not  with  florid  expressions  or  studied  eloquence, 
not  with  an  intemperate  vehemence,  or  indecent 
boldness.  It  was  at  the  greatest  possible  dis- 
tance from  any  appearance  of  ostentation,  and 
from  anything  that  might  look  as  though  he 
meant  to  recommend  himself  to  those  that  were 
about  him,  or  set  himself  off  to  their  acceptance. 
It  was  free  from  all  vain  repetitions.  He  expressed 
himself  with  the  strictest  propriety,  with  weight 
and  pungency;  and  yet  what  his  lips  uttered 
seemed  to  flow  from  the  fulness  of  his  heart." 
("Puritan  Preacher,"  p.  219.) 


LECTURE  VI 
THE  PREPARA.TION  FOR  PUBLIC  PRAYER 


OUTLINE 

General  Helps  to  Public  Prayer. 
The  habit  of  private  prayer. 

Famiharity  with  the  devotional  parts  of  the  Bible. 
Study  of  the  prayers  of  the  Church. 
Books   of   worship,    and   collections    of   individual 

prayers. 
The  reading  of  devotional  classics. 
Knowledge   of   men   and    sympathy    with    human 

interests. 
The  proper  attitude  toward  life  and  work. 

Immediate  Preparation  for  Public  Prayer. 

Survey  of  the  immediate  needs  of  the  people. 
The  forming  of  a  definite  and  progressive  plan. 
Reasons  for  frequent  writing  of  prayers. 
Helps  to  the  devotional  spirit. 


VI 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR  PUBLIC 
PRAYER 

Enough  has  been  said  to  give  prayer  its  true 
place  in  our  conception  of  public  worship.  And 
we  must  feel  that  it  calls  for  the  exercise  of  the 
highest  powers  of  the  trained  mind  united  with 
the  deepest  religious  emotions.  While  the  hum- 
blest child  of  God  may  teach  us  how  to  pray,  the 
service  of  the  largest  knowledge  and  the  most 
skilful  expression  may  properly  be  demanded  in 
voicing  the  devotions  of  a  people. 

If  we  have  the  proper  conception  of  this  exalted 
service,  the  petition  will  daily  be  upon  our  lips, 
"Lord,  teach  us  to  pray."  The  answer  of  Christ 
will  come  through  appointed  means;  His  blessing 
will  rest  upon  use  of  helps  provided  in  His 
providence,  and  suggested  by  the  experience  of 
devout  men. 

General    Helps    to    Public    Prayer.  —  We 
must  cultivate  the   habit  of    secret  prayer.     It 
95 


96  Public  Worship 

may  seem  trite  to  repeat  such  a  primary  matter 
as  this,  one  that  all  know  and  confess,  but  our 
chief  lack  will  surely  be  here.  We  shall  not 
escape  the  temptation  to  limit  our  devotional 
life  in  the  interests  of  an  active,  aggressive 
Christianity;  to  be  much  without  in  plans  and 
methods  and  societies,  in  preachings  and  visitings; 
and  too  little  within,  in  that  intense,  strenuous 
exercise  of  the  whole  man  before  God,  the  wres- 
tling that  brings  to  every  servant  of  God,  as  to 
Jacob  of  old,  the  new  name,  symbol  of  the  new 
power.  The  people  can  tell  instinctively  whether 
the  prayers  of  the  pulpit  are  from  the  lips  out- 
ward, or  a  breathing  of  the  inner  life.  The 
chief  secret  of  the  recovery  or  the  development 
of  the  devotional  element  in  public  service  is 
easiest  to  find.  We  have  but  to  enter  the  secret 
place  and  shut  the  door  and  ask  God  for  it. 
And  it  would  be  well  in  our  private  prayers  to 
cultivate  definite  thoughts  and  desires  and  to  give 
oral  expression  to  them.  Too  much  of  our  private 
devotion  is  lifeless  routine  or  listless  reverie,  and 
this  would  be  corrected  by  vocal  prayer.  The 
daily  exercise  of  praying  aloud  would  concentrate 
the  mind,  lead  to  the  quick  perception  of  need  and 
the  appropriate  language  of  it.  There  can  be  no 
better  help  to  pulpit  prayer  than  the  daily  inter- 
cessory prayer  of  a  pastor  for  his  people. 


The  Preparation  for  Public  Prayer        97 

We  are  to  make  ourselves  familiar  with  the 
thoughts  and  language  of  devotion. 

The  devotional  parts  of  the  Bible  minister  to 
the  devotional  spirit.  The  language  of  Prophets 
and  Psalmists  and  Apostles  is  the  very  speech 
of  worship.  How  rich  the  variety  of  this  lan- 
guage! It  is  universal  in  its  sympathies,  mani- 
fold in  its  expression  of  human  want.  So  it  is 
often  a  true  medium  of  fellowship  between  the 
pastor  and  the  congregation.  The  people  respond 
to  these  timeless  voices  of  need  and  aspiration. 
The  language  of  Scripture,  both  by  its  poetic 
quality  and  its  sacred  associations,  often  saves 
the  expression  of  commonplace  wants  from 
vulgarity,  and  lifts  them  into  a  spiritual  atmos- 
phere. Would  we  make  men  conscious  of  the 
presence  of  God.?  What  thought  or  language 
is  more  thrilling  with  divinity  than  the  nineteenth 
or  the  one  hundred  and  fourth  Psalm.?  Of  the 
latter  Humboldt  has  said:  "In  the  compass  of 
a  small  poem,  the  universe,  the  heavens  and 
the  earth  are  drawn  with  a  few  grand  strokes." 
They  are  no  less  fitted  to  voice  the  deepest 
spiritual  necessities.  Even  in  the  short  Psalms 
we  sometimes  find  the  greatest  variety,  "All 
the  compass  of  the  gamut  described,  from  the 
groan  to  the  psean,  from  the  deep  self-accusa- 
tion   to    the    transport    of    gratitude."     Hence 


98  Public  Worship 

there  is  a  singular  completeness  in  them,  and 
an  adaptation  to  the  feelings  of  mixed  assem- 
blies. To  be  at  home,  heart  and  soul,  in  the 
devotional  thought  and  speech  of  the  Bible  is 
a  direct  preparation  for  pulpit  prayer.  Commit- 
ting the  Psalms  to  memory  would  be  a  culture  in 
high  thought  and  pure  feeling. 

Next  to  the  prayers  and  devotional  language 
of  the  Bible,  we  may  well  study  the  prayers  of 
devout  men  that  by  their  singular  spiritual 
quality  and  felicity  of  language  have  commended 
themselves  to  the  consciousness  of  the  Church. 
God  speaks  to  us  through  such  souls.  And  by 
the  proper  use  of  these  prayers  of  the  Church, 
we  shall  gain  a  finer  spiritual  sight  and  a  truer 
fervour.  The  "Book  of  Common  Prayer"  may 
well  be  a  vade  mecum  for  the  minister  who  would 
learn  to  pray  for  his  people.  "Common  Wor- 
ship'* and  the  books  of  the  Scotch  churches 
contain  prayers  associated  with  the  worship 
of  generations.  The  prayers  of  Plymouth 
pulpit  were  as  significant  as  the  sermons,  and 
cannot  fail  to  enrich  the  life  of  the  pulpit.  The 
prayers  of  Alexander  Maclaren  were  as  Biblical 
as  his  expositions  and  had  the  interpretive 
power  of  a  prophetic  spirit. 

We  shall  be  helped  not  only  by  the  study 
of    the    prayers     of    great    souls    and    worthy 


The  Preparation  for  Public  Prayer         99 

liturgies,  but  by  the  frequent  reading  of  books 
that  have  become  devotional  classics,  books 
that  deal  with  the  inner  life,  meditations  upon 
truth.  The  names  of  many  such  writers  are 
familiar,  Herbert  and  Jeremy  Taylor,  Vaughn, 
and  Goulbourne,  and  Phelps.  A  helpful  list 
of  such  books  is  given  in  the  Andover  Re- 
view^ vol.  II.  No  single  book  is  more  helpful 
than  Goulbourne's,  "Thoughts  on  Personal 
Religion." 

There  is  a  danger  that  the  older  devotional 
classics  may  cultivate  a  type  of  other  world- 
liness  so  removed  from  the  thought  and  need  of 
present  life  that  religious  experiences  may  seem 
unnatural  and  prayer  vague  and  unreal.  There- 
fore it  is  necessary  for  us  to  cultivate  a  balanced, 
normal  piety,  and  put  beside  a  Kempis  and  Taylor 
the  poets  and  essayists  and  preachers  who  deal 
with  life  largely  and  profoundly  and  make  us 
conscious  of  the  ever-present  and  working  God. 

The  preparation  for  public  worship  is  not  all 
in  the  closet  or  the  study.  It  is  not  complete 
without  that  'practical  knowledge  of  men  and 
sympathy  with  all  human  interests  that  come 
from  the  touch  of  men  on  the  side  of  their  deeper 
natures  and  needs.  "Communion  with  God," 
said  Robertson,  "is  not  to  be  gained  by  abstrac- 
tion and   asceticism,   but  by  the  development 


100  Public  Worship 

of  Christian  sympathies."  The  pastor  who 
daily  touches  the  lives  of  his  people,  who  puts 
himself  in  their  place  by  a  sympathetic  expe- 
rience, will  have  the  greater  desires  born  in  his 
heart;  he  will  be  the  man  who  prays. 

"  He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best 
All  things  both  great  and  small.'* 

And  we  must  not  forget  that  there  is  a  still 
broader  preparation.  The  minister's  habits  of 
work  and  thought,  the  elements  that  go  to  make 
him  a  thorough  or  shallow  man,  a  devoted 
servant  of  Christ  or  a  selfish  seeker  for  place 
and  fame  —  all  these  determine  the  quality  of 
his  worship.  No  truer  words  have  ever  been 
written  than  these:  "To  prepare  for  public 
prayer,  the  minister  must  seek  a  right  attitude 
both  toward  God  and  toward  men.  To  the 
former  of  these  ends  all  his  Christian  experience 
will  contribute.  Whatever  deepens  his  character 
will  equip  him  also  for  this  serious  duty.  Grap- 
pling, for  the  sake  of  the  Master,  with  disagree- 
able parish  work,  endeavouring  to  spend  his  hours 
at  the  desk  in  hard  study  instead  of  in  loitering 
or  over  light  literature;  in  a  word,  every  act 
that  gives  him  nearness  to  God  increases  his 
fitness  to  conduct  the  worship  of  the  Sanctuary." 
{Andover  Review,  12:  619.) 


The  Preparation  for  Public  Prayer      101 

Prayer,  the  highest  and  hardest  exercise  of  the 
human  spirit,  is  no  easy  attainment.  The  deep- 
est culture  and  experience  of  the  years  come 
to  Hfe  in  the  "fruit  of  the  Hps."  "When  I  was 
a  boy,"  said  Theodore  Parker,  "I  heard  men 
pray  great  prayers  and  deep  ones.  To  me  it 
seemed  as  if  an  angel  sang  them  out  of  the  sky, 
and  this  man  caught  the  sound,  and  copied  it 
easily  on  his  own  string.  I  wondered  all  men 
prayed  not  so;  that  all  could  not.  Before  I  was 
a  man,  I  learned  that  such  inspirings  come  not 
thus,  but  of  toil  and  pain,  trial  and  sorrow  — 
here  spread  over  many  days,  there  condensed 
into  a  few;  that  it  was  not  by  gathering  flowers 
in  a  meadow  of  June  they  got  their  treasures,  but 
by  diving  deep  into  a  stormy  water  that  they 
brought  up  with  pain  the  pearl  of  the  twisted 
shell."  ("Life of  Parker,"  by  Frothingham, p.  337.) 

Immediate  Preparation  for  Public  Prayer.  — 
On  Saturday  evening  or  Sunday  morning, 
after  the  preparation  of  the  other  parts  of 
the  Sunday  service  has  been  made,  there 
should  be  a  thoughtful  and  careful  prepara- 
tion of  the  public  prayers.  A  picture  of  the 
parish  in  its  present  and  personal  need  should 
be  brought  before  the  mind.  As  the  mental 
vision  must  ever  see  the  audience  in  the  prep- 


102  Public  Worship 

aration  of  the  sermon,  the  marvellous  picture 
of  human  sins  and  conflicts  and  hopes,  to  give 
directness  and  sympathy  and  fitness,  so  rep- 
resentative prayer  cannot  be  formed  without  a 
vivid  consciousness  of  the  life  of  the  parish. 
The  stricken  households  will  not  be  forgotten. 
The  tempted  and  burdened  souls  will  not  be 
unknown.  The  wayward  will  be  followed.  The 
spiritual  pulse  must  be  felt  And  the  minister 
who  is  not  enough  of  the  pastor  to  feel  the  beat 
of  this  life,  or  have  the  frequent  self-revelation 
to  him  of  this  life,  must  signally  fail  in  his  duty 
of  intercession.  It  is  this  subtle  perception  of 
present  need,  this  voice  of  to-day  that  will  find 
the  heart  and  give  to  his  prayers,  freshness  and 
adaptability  and  upward  attraction. 

Knowing  the  needs  of  the  people,  there  will 
be  careful  thought  upon  the  particular  subjects 
of  the  prayers  and  their  proper  expression.  At 
least  the  order  of  topics  should  be  formed  and 
thoroughly  held  in  mind  and  doubtless  to  some 
extent  the  very  words  of  the  prayer  will  be 
framed.  "A  prayer  should  have  a  definite  and 
progressive  plan  —  a  beginning,  a  middle,  and  — 
most  important  of  all  —  an  end.'*  ("The  Way 
the  Preachers  Pray,"  p.  44.)  Such  thoughtful 
care  will  not  hinder  the  freedom  of  the  mind 
and  the  fervour  of  the  spirit. 


The  Preparation  for  Public  Prayer      103 

A  practical  question  comes  to  every  young 
minister:  Should  he  ever  write  his  prayers? 
Like  the  method  of  preaching,  it  is  a  personal 
matter.  There  is  no  best  way  for  all.  Yet  there 
are  notable  examples  in  favour  of  such  a  practice. 
John  Calvin  was  so  deeply  impressed  with  the 
supreme  importance  of  prayer  that  he  not  only 
wrote  his  prayers,  but  formed  a  liturgy  for  the 
church  of  Geneva. 

And  an  eminent  minister  of  our  own  land,  who 
always  prepared  for  worship  pen  in  hand,  is  said 
to  have  had,  "A  liturgy  of  his  own  which  he  could 
use,  without  any  danger  of  promoting  a  lethargy 
of  piety  in  himself  or  any  one  else." 

The  writing  will  lead  to  definite  petitions.  It 
will  lead  to  a  proper  proportion  between  the 
subjective  and  objective  elements  in  prayer. 
And  it  will  secure  from  week  to  week  a  proper 
variety  of  subjects,  so  that  in  proper  time  the 
great  themes  of  prayer  and  the  special  and 
general  wants  of  the  people  will  be  expressed. 
The  writing  will  help  to  secure  the  simple  and 
reverent  expression  of  direct  address  to  God. 
The  momentary  restraint  of  written  form  will 
be  more  than  balanced  by  the  certainty  and 
reverent  preparation  of  mind,  and  of  language 
in  a  certain  sense  worthy  of  the  act  of  worship. 

Having  made  the  preparation  of  the  thought 


104  Public  Worship 

and  language  of  devotion,  the  minister  will  lay- 
hold  of  the  helps  to  a  devotional  spirit.  He 
will  secure  the  moments  of  quiet  before  entering 
the  pulpit.  He  will  seek  earnestly  the  aid  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  and  recall  the  fact  of  his  place 
and  privilege  as  the  leader  of  the  people  in  the 
hohest  service.  Thus  prepared  by  honest  effort 
and  quickened  by  the  Spirit  he  cannot  fail  to 
pray  with  the  spirit  and  the  understanding  and 
will  lead  the  people  in  truth  in  the  most  spiritual 
act  of  worship. 


LECTURE  VII 
THE  USE  OF  SCRIPTURE  IN  WORSHIP 


OUTLINE 

The  Expressive  and  Impressive  Use  of  Scripture. 

The  Expressive:     The  use  by  pastor  and  people. 

The  responsive  use  of  Scripture. 
The  growth  in  such  use. 
Reasons  for  responsive  use.     Impresses  the  memory. 

Fitted  to  portions  of  the  Bible.     Accords  with  a 

free,  congregational  service. 
The  parts  fitted  for  responsive  worship. 
The  use  of  the  Psalter  in  the  church. 
The  manner  of  responsive  use. 

The  Impressive:     The  Minister's  Use  of  Scripture. 
Call  to  worship  and  instruction. 
Argument  for  the  orderly  reading  of  the  Scriptures. 
Selection   of   the   lessons.     Study    of    the   lessons. 
Suggestions  as  to  reading. 


VII 

THE  USE  OF  SCRIPTURE  IN 
WORSHIP 

The  Bible  contains  the  best  literature  of 
devotion;  many  parts  have  been  used  in 
worship  and  come  freighted  with  the  aspira- 
tions of  devout  souls.  The  unity  of  faith, 
the  highest  uses  of  instruction,  and  the  fit- 
ting expression  of  the  Church's  life  in  God 
call  for  the  generous  use  of  the  Scripture  in 
public  worship. 

There  is  the  expressive  and  impressive 
use  of  the  Scripture:  The  expressive  when 
minister  and  people  use  the  Scripture  as  a 
direct  act  of  worship;  the  impressive  when 
the  minister  alone  uses  the  Scripture  for 
instruction  or  to  cultivate  certain  states  and 
acts  of  worship. 

The  Use  by  the  Minister  and  Congregation 
or  the  Responsive  Use  of  Scripture.  — There 
is  a  growing  use  of  the  Scripture  by  the  congre- 
gation in  the  non-liturgical  churches.     A  report 

107 


108  Public  Worship 

in  1886  from  four  hundred  and  twenty-two 
Congregational  Churches  of  Massachusetts 
showed  that  nearly  one  third  had  adopted  the 
responsive  use  of  Scripture.  And  since  then  the 
tendency  has  been  gaining  strength.  The  Church 
Service  Society  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  found, 
in  1899,  out  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  larger 
churches  of  Pennsylvania  forty-three  using  re- 
sponsive services;  and  one  hundred  and  twenty 
using  such  forms  out  of  the  one  hundred  and 
eighty-one  churches  heard  from  in  New  York 
and  New  Jersey.  While  the  Presbyterian  Church 
shows  less  interest  in  the  development  of  worship, 
is  more  conservative  in  the  plainness  of  form,  the 
reports  show  a  growing  desire  of  the  people 
for  an  active  part  in  worship. 

The  question  of  the  Scriptures  is  to  be  tested, 
like  other  parts  of  worship,  not  by  church  law 
(for  we  are  absolutely  free  in  this  respect),  but 
by  the  highest  usefulness.  Mechanical  partici- 
pation by  the  congregation,  the  increase  of  the 
volume  of  sound  or  the  mere  decoration  of  the 
service  are  not  sufficient  grounds  for  the  attempt. 
If  nothing  more  than  these  are  to  be  gained, 
better  the  reading  of  the  Word  of  God  by  the 
pastor  alone.  But  the  demand  for  the  Con- 
gregational use  of  Scripture  seems  to  spring 
from  true  reasons  and  motives. 


The  Use  of  Scripture  in  Worship        109 

Why  is  the  responsive  element  a  natural 
expression  of  Christian  Sentiment  in  a  Con- 
gregation  I  quote  from  "Parish  Problems," 

p.  463: 

(1)  Responsive  utterance  aids  to  impress  on  the 
memory  certain  most  instructive  and  edifying  portions 
of  Holy  Scripture.  These,  if  only  falling  from  the 
pulpit  upon  the  ears  of  the  young  or  the  unthinking, 
may  easily  be  unheeded;  but  if  all  voices  be  called 
forth  in  their  utterance,  they  will  be  more  likely  to  fix 
the  attention;  or  in  default  of  that,  a  lodgment  of  the 
mere  words  may  be  effected  in  the  memory,  there  to 
await  the  time  for  their  resurrection  into  living  power. 

(2)  The  responsive  form  is  the  most  fitting  for 
the  presentation  of  large  portions  of  the  Word;  indeed 
for  some  portions  the  only  proper  form  since  they  are 
well  known  to  have  been  composed  for  antiphonal 
use  in  the  ancient  public  services  of  God.  Thought 
answers  thought,  the  words  by  a  natural  law  fall  into 
balancing  periods;  voice  echoes  voice;  rather  a  multi- 
tude of  voices,  called  forth  by  the  inspiring  sentiment 
reduplicate  and  reinforce  it,  and  by  their  multiplied 
testimony  the  words  of  truth  are  established  in  majesty, 

(3)  Responsive  exercises,  bringing  the  whole 
assembly  into  audible  utterance,  accord  with  the  whole 
idea  of  a  free,  unpriestly,  congregational  service; 
while  also  they  fulfil  the  natural  law  that  the  rendering 
of  worship  by  the  hearts  of  an  assembly  is  greatly 
aided  by  the  joining  of  all  voices  in  such  selected 
parts  as  are  intrinsically  fitted  for  that  method. 


110  Public  Worship 

^Vhat  Parts  of  Scripture  Are  Intrinsically 
Fitted  for  Responsive  Worship  ?— Only  such 
parts  as  were  composed  for  such  public  worship, 
where  thought  answers  to  thought,  and  words 
fall  into  balancing  phrases,  and  where  a  certain 
poetic  thought  and  devotional  fervour  quickens 
the  sentiment  and  makes  itself  felt  in  the  move- 
ment. This  would  exclude  the  narrative  and 
didactic  parts  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 
It  would  include  the  Psalms,  portions  of  Job 
and  the  prophecies  and  an  occasional  lyric 
passage  in  the  histories  and  the  New  Testament. 
Only  responsive  thought  should  have  responsive 
utterance.  The  Psalter  is  the  chief  treasury. 
*'No  single  book  of  Scripture,  not  even  the  New 
Testament,  has  perhaps  ever  taken  such  hold 
on  the  heart  of  Christendom.  None,  if  we  may 
dare  judge,  unless  it  be  the  Gospels,  has  had  so 
large  an  influence  in  moulding  the  affections, 
sustaining  the  hopes,  purifying  the  faith  of 
believers.  With  its  words,  rather  than  with 
their  own,  they  have  come  before  God.  In 
these  they  have  uttered  their  desires,  their 
fears,  their  confessions,  their  aspirations,  their 
sorrows,  their  joys,  their  thanksgivings.  By 
these  their  devotion  has  been  kindled  and  their 
hearts  comforted.  The  Psalter  has  been  in 
the    truest    sense    the     Prayer-book    both     of 


The  Use  of  Scripture  in  Worship        111 

Jews  and  Christians."     (Perowne  on  the  Psalms, 
chap.  2.) 

What  Should  Be  the  Manner  of  Respon- 
sive Use  ? —  It  is  not  best  for  the  Psalter  or  other 
parts  of  Scripture  to  be  read  by  verses,  thus  cover- 
ing up  the  Hebrew  parallelism  and  disregarding 
the  antiphonal  structure.  Such  method  not  only- 
takes  away  in  large  measure  the  significance  of 
such  reading,  but  makes  the  passage  too  long  for 
the  best  devotional  expression  of  a  congregation. 
It  will  lack  unity  and  fulness  of  tone.  It  is  to 
be  remembered  that  the  responsive  reading 
is  for  worship  and  not  instruction.  The  Psalms 
were  chanted  in  the  early  church.  They  are 
now  chanted  in  the  English  and  Scotch  churches, 
and  if  they  could  be  properly  chanted  in  our 
own  churches,  it  would  be  a  decided  gain  in  the 
dignity  and  elevation  of  spirit  in  worship.  They 
are  addressed  to  God,  the  expressions  of  the 
grateful,  adoring,  penitent  heart.  The  nature 
of  responsive  reading  should  determine  its  use. 

The  minister  should  especially  keep  himself 
out  of  sight.  He  should  avoid  any  undue  in- 
dividual emphasis  or  inflection.  Without 
monotony  or  intoning,  there  should  be  a  certain 
evenness  and  certainty  of  movement.  Of  course 
there  should  be  intelligent  expression,  but  the 


112  Public  Worship 

range  of  inflection  will  be  smaller  than  in  per- 
sonal interpretation,  and  all  will  be  done  for  the 
total  effect  of  the  worship.  The  minister  should 
try  to  call  out  the  united  response  of  the  people. 
By  securing  leaders  in  different  parts  of  the 
congregation,  it  is  possible  to  secure  a  united 
and  worshipful  response.  The  first  words  are 
to  be  struck  clear  and  firm  and  a  steady  and 
strong  movement  kept  throughout.  With 
proper  care  the  people,  young  and  old,  will  love 
this  part  of  the  service.  It  will  greatly  tend 
to  unite  them  in  their  thought  and  feeling,  and 
increase  the  spirit  of  worship. 

The  Minister's  Use  of  Scriptures. —  The 
minister  may  have  a  twofold  purpose  in  his  use 
of  Scripture:  to  call  to  worship  and  to  give 
instruction. 

In  the  call  to  worship,  brief  verses  may  be 
read  or  recited,  at  the  opening  of  the  service,  at 
the  prayer  of  confession,  and  at  the  offering. 

In  the  use  of  Scripture  for  instruction,  the 
passages  may  be  selected  without  reference  to 
the  particular  sermon,  to  present  the  chief  facts 
of  Gospel  revelation  in  successive  steps  through 
the  year.  This  may  be  called  the  historical 
method,  the  way  God  has  pleased  to  make 
Himself    known   to   the   world.       The   volume. 


The  Use  of  Scripture  in  Worship        113 

"Aids  to  Common  Worship,"  is  arranged  on 
this  plan,  to  give  each  Lord's  Day  short  passages 
from  the  old  Covenant,  the  Gospels  and  the 
Apostolic   Word. 

The  orderly  reading  of  the  Scriptures  in  the 
worship  of  the  Church  began  very  early.  About 
400  A.  D.  writers  began  to  mention  fixed  lections 
from  Holy  Scripture.  The  English  Prayer-book 
is  a  good  example  of  such  selections.  "The 
general  principle  of  the  selections  seems  to  be 
this:  In  the  earlier,  and  as  we  may  call  it  the 
doctrinal,  half  of  the  Christian  year,  from  Advent 
to  Trinity,  the  appointed  Gospels  set  before 
us  declarations  or  illustrations  of  the  great  facts 
of  our  creed  commemorated  at  the  different 
seasons,  and  the  Epistle  is  adapted  to  the  Gospel 
or  to  the  season.  In  the  second  or  practical 
half  of  the  year  (the  Sundays  after  Trinity)  the 
Epistles  take  the  lead  with  teaching  concerning 
the  Christian  life,  which  the  Gospels  for  the  most 
part  serve  to  illustrate.'* 

If  we  recognize  the  independent  spiritual  value 
of  the  Scriptures,  there  is  strong  reason  for  their 
systematic  use  in  worship.  The  reading  should 
aim  at  some  completeness  of  teaching  "that 
the  people  may  become  better  acquainted  with 
the  whole  body  of  Scriptures.'* 

This  may  seem  to  interfere  with  unity  of  wor- 


114  Public  Worship 

ship,  but  desire  for  unity  should  never  prevent 
the  effort  to  meet  the  completest  need  of  the 
people  in  worship.  Such  systematic  reading 
will  be  larger  than  the  taste  of  the  preacher, 
will  not  have  the  weakness  of  random  choice 
or  of  a  few  favourite  and  familiar  passages,  and 
will  meet  the  need  created  by  the  lessened  use 
of  the  Bible  in  the  family  and  in  private  reading. 

The  use  of  the  Scriptures  in  worship  in  their 
historic  order  of  revelation,  or  in  their  progressive 
teaching  of  Christian  experience,  demands  more 
than  the  knowledge  and  taste  of  the  individual; 
it  must  be  the  work  of  large  cooperation  by  a 
selected  group  of  men  or  churches.  Until  the 
sentiment  of  the  Church  demands  such  co- 
operation, the  present  method  in  non-liturgical 
churches  will  continue,  of  selecting  the  Scripture 
lessons  for  the  use  of  the  sermon,  to  meet  the 
special  need  of  the  hour. 

If  such  be  the  method,  the  use  of  the  Bible 
will  depend  upon  the  variety  and  balance  of  the 
preacher's  teaching.  If  he  be  a  man  of  the 
Word  and  have  the  educative  purpose  in  preach- 
ing, the  most  helpful  portions  of  the  Bible  will 
be  read. 

It  is  well  to  make  the  selection  from  both  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments,  when  such  selections 
can  increase  the  impression  of  truth.  They  should 


The  Use  of  Scripture  in  Worship        115 

have  a  unity,  a  single  underlying  thought.  Not 
a  verse  should  be  read  after  the  connected  thought 
has  been  expressed.  There  is  no  virtue  in 
reading  so  many  verses  of  Scripture. 

"Arrange  the  order  of  service  so  as  to  have 
suflficient  reading  of  Scripture.  The  books  as 
literature  of  religion  are  worth  reading,  as  the 
Word  of  God  should  have  supreme  place.  When 
the  systematic  reading  of  the  Bible  in  the  family 
and  the  school  has  declined  it  is  our  duty  to  make 
the  people  familiar  with  the  essential  parts  of 
its  revelation.  If  any  part  of  the  service  should 
be  shortened,  it  should  not  be  the  use  of  the 
Scriptures."     (Pattison,    "Worship,"   p.  131.) 

There  is  no  need  to  read  the  chapter  from 
which  the  text  is  taken,  unless  it  is  needed  in 
some  exposition  of  the  sermon  or  is  a  part  with 
which  the  people  are  not  familiar.  It  is  better 
to  select  two  independent  passages,  one  from  the 
Old  Testament  and  one  from  the  New,  illustrat- 
ing the  subject  of  the  sermon,  but  not  containing 
the    text. 

The  selection  of  the  Scripture  lesson  should 
be  thoughtfully  made,  something  more  than 
connection  with  the  text.  The  selections  should 
be  recorded,  so  that  by  review  of  the  use  of 
Scripture,  the  preacher  can  see  to  it  that  he 
goes  beyond  a  few  favourite  passages,  that  he 


116  Public  Worship 

has  searched  to  bring  forth  things  new  and  old. 
There  should  be  unity  in  teaching.  This  is 
sometimes  secured  by  a  variety  of  selections.  It 
should  not  always  be  of  the  same  length. 
Certain  parts  should  not  be  joined  with  others. 
The  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  should  be 
read  alone. 

The  study  of  the  Scripture  lesson  is  a  part  of 
the  preparation  for  worship.  Every  lesson 
should  be  selected  and  studied  for  its  own  sake, 
studied  for  vocal  expression,  and  frequently 
a  record  made  of  such  studies.  Reading  aloud 
has  relation  to  spiritual  thought  and  feeling. 

"Vocal  expression  demands  that  thought  and 
feeling  should  be  living  and  present.  Emotion 
cannot  be  kept  for  years.  There  must  be  a 
recontemplation  of  each  idea,  a  recreation  of 
every  scene,  a  reapplication  of  knowledge. 
Only  intense  study  and  meditation  a  short  time 
before  reading  can  give  a  passage  adequate 
expression.  Thought  may  be  prepared  and 
presented  after  long  years  more  adequately  than 
imagination  and  emotion.  Feeling  must  always 
be  a  present,  living  realization,  or  it  is  not  feeling 
at  all.  But  even  thought  will  lose  all  fresh  and 
imaginative  responsiveness,  and  will  be  cold 
and  dead,  without  being  once  more  thought 
out  and  its  grounds  carefully  examined. 


The  Use  of  Scripture  in  Worship        117 

"Last  of  all  there  must  be  a  spiritual  realization 
of  the  message,  an  application  of  it  to  the  reader's 
own  experience.  Nothing  can  compensate  for  lack 
of  this.  Without  this  part  of  the  preparation  of 
the  lesson,  there  will  be  a  certain  aloofness  in  the 
reading,  a  certain  separation  of  the  thought  and 
feeling  from  the  reader's  own  soul."  (Curry, 
"Literary  and  Vocal  Interpretation  of  the 
Bible,"  p.  295.) 

The  public  reading  of  the  Scripture  must  be 
in  part  personal,  for  we  can  only  express  impres- 
sions made  upon  our  own  souls.  But  there  are 
certain  tests  of  true  expression  that  we  should 
apply  to  our  reading.  Is  it  truthful?  Is  it 
simple?  that  is  —  is  there  a  true  self-forgetfulness 
in  the  reverence  for  truth?  Does  it  preserve 
the  unity  of  the  thought,  each  movement  of  the 
voice  related  to  the  life  of  the  whole?  We 
should  always  try  to  accentuate  the  fundamental 
thought.  There  should  be  animation,  but  regu- 
lated and  directed,  in  keeping  with  a  certain 
reserve,  no  striving  to  make  a  point.  Repose  is 
characteristic  of  all  true  art. 

But  the  chief  thing  to  remember  in  reading 
the  Scriptures  is  that  we  are  interpreters,  trying 
to  give  the  thought  of  another.  It  is  not  our 
own  word,  but  thought  coming  to  our  own  soul 
as  well  as  to  others.     We  try  to  express  the  truth 


118  Public  Worship 

and  at  the  same  time  its  impression  on  our  souls. 
Let  the  truth  make  its  own  impression,  picture, 
story,  lesson,  with  simple  realism,  with  as  little 
of  self  in  it  as  possible.  The  reading  should 
never  be  dogmatic  and  pedantic. 

"Every  time  a  man  reads  the  Scripture,  he 
will  cause  chords  to  vibrate,  not  merely  between 
his  heart  and  the  hearts  of  his  fellow  men,  but 
between  other  souls  and  the  infinite  over-SQuL_ 
He  knows,  if  he  has  any  true  conception  of  what 
he  is  doing,  that  he  is  treading  upon  holy  ground, 
and  takes  off  the  shoes  of  his  own  personal  whims, 
of  all  artificial  theatric  personations,  to  speak 
with  the  utmost  simplicity,  knowing  that  the 
words  will  awaken,  not  only  memory  of  a  mother*s 
or  of  a  father's  voice,  which  may  long  have  been 
silent,  but  echoes  of  the  soul's  own  life.  Each 
soul  has  an  open  door  into  the  Infinite,  and 
through  this  door  of  consciousness  only  the 
Infinite  and  Eternal  enter.  Any  reverent 
reader  of  the  Scriptures  knows  that  his  little 
knock  at  the  door  of  the  senses  is  but  to  call 
the  attention  of  the  soul  to  the  knock  of  an  inner 
infinite  visitor.  He  feels  that  God  is  nearer 
every  soul  than  he  himself  can  ever  be." 
(Curry,  p.   14.) 


LECTURE  VIII 
THE  WORSHIP  OF  SACRED  SONG 


OUTLINE 

The  Universal  Use  in  the  Church. 
Sacred  Poetry. 

The  poets  of  the  Church  called  to  their  ministry. 

Teachers  of  praise,  aspiration  and  faith. 

The  relation  of  hymns  to  the  life  of  the  Church. 

The  Office  of  Music  in  Worship. 

The  influence  of  music  upon  character. 
Its  special  social  value. 

The  union  of  poetry  and  worship;  its  high  devo- 
tional value. 

The  Twofold  Function  of  Church  Music. 
Expression  and  impression. 

The  General  Principles  of  Church  Music. 

The  choice  of  hymns.  Relation  between  the 
music  and  the  hymn.  Music  should  be  congre- 
gational and  largely  expressive. 

The  place  of  the  choir. 

Growth  in  the  music  of  worship. 

Practical  Difficulties  in  the  Worship  of  Song. 
The  wrong  conception  of  church  music. 
Lack  of  musical  training  among  the  people. 
The  claim  of  choirs. 

How  Shall  the  Difficulties  Be  Met. 

The  minister  the  leader  of  the  entire  service. 

The  importance  of  sacred  song  taught  by  example 

and  word. 
Right  relations  with  the  choir. 
Proper  musical  training  for  the  choir  and  people. 


vni 

THE  WORSHIP  OF  SACRED  SONG 

Sacred  song  is  the  union  of  two  of  the  noblest  arts, 
music,  and  poetry,  in  the  worship  of  God.  It  has 
ever  been  thought  that  poetry  had  something  of 
divineness;  and  the  ancient  myth  that  music  was 
the  gift  of  the  Gods  to  establish  communication  be- 
tween earth  and  heaven  has  an  element  of  truth. 

No  Christian  communion,  save  the  Quakers, 
has  failed  to  use  sacred  song,  and  even  the 
Quakers  are  now  beginning  its  use.  The  worship 
of  God  with  music  may  almost  be  called  a  prime 
notion  of  the  soul,  so  ancient  and  universal  it 
is.  "There  never  was  any  land  so  barbarous, 
or  any  people  so  polite,  but  have  always  ap- 
proached their  gods  with  the  solemnity  of  music 
and  expressed  their  devotions  with  a  song."  (Dr. 
Hickman,  Ps.  C:  1,  1695.)  The  majestic  music  of 
the  Jewish  temple,  the  joyful  songs  of  the  early 
Church  have  been  continued  in  chant  and  hymn, 
in  choral  and  symphony,  commanding  the  gifts  of 
the  highest  genius  in  the  service  of  worship. 
121 


122  Public  Worship 

No  worship  is  felt  to  be  complete  without 
music.  But  there  is  the  widest  difference  in  our 
churches,  ranging  all  the  way  from  reverent 
and  skilled  expression,  to  the  music  that  has 
little  worth  and  is  secular  in  flavour  and  style. 

Because  of  the  general  acknowledgment  of 
the  importance  of  sacred  music  and  the  lack  of 
a  definite  standard  of  taste  and  a  clear  impression 
of  the  place  of  music  in  worship,  it  is  well  for  the 
minister  to  give  earnest  thought  to  the  practical 
questions  of  church  music.  It  will  help  us  to  con- 
sider separately  for  a  moment  the  two  elements 
united  in  worship,  sacred  poetry  and  sacred  music. 

Sacred  Poetry. —  No  words  can  properly  ex- 
press the  debt  of  Christian  faith  to  sacred  poetry. 
We  may  take  as  our  own  the  words  of  Wordsworth: 

"Blessings  be  with  them  —  and  eternal  praise. 
Who  gave  us  nobler  loves  and  nobler  cares  — 
The  poets  who  on  earth  have  made  us  heirs 
Of  truth  and  pure  delight  by  heavenly  lays  — " 

The  poets  of  the  Church  have  been  as  truly  ^ 
set  apart  by  God  for  a  holy  ministry  as  the 
heralds  of  faith.     The  spirit  that  Milton  invoked, 

"That  dost  prefer 
Before  all  temples  the  upright  heart  and  pure," 

has  touched  and  illumined  the  minds  of  Christian 
singers.     In  their   moments   of   intense   feeling. 


The  Worship  of  Sacred  Song  123 

the  moments  of  poetic  illumination,  they  see 
truth  more  clearly  than  the  common  mind, 
they  perceive  the  vital  relation  of  man  to  God, 
the  gifts  of  God  and  the  reasons  for  praise. 
They  have  often  been  led  through  strange  and 
checkered  careers,  that  they  might  have  some- 
thing of  the  universal  in  their  experience  and 
touch  the  heart  of  humanity.  They  strip  truth 
of  its  semblance;  they  uncover  the  human  heart; 
they  give  definite  form  to  the  shadowy  visions 
of  the  soul;  they  voice  what  we  feel  in  our  best 
moments,  and  so  lead  to  holy  aspiration  and 
voice  heavenly  desire. 

The  sacred  poets  have  been  men  of  faith. 
They  have  been  the  seers  of  the  Church.  They 
have  seen  the  silver  lining  of  the  cloud;  they  have 
seen  the  hosts  of  the  sky  marshalled  for  the 
defence  of  God's  children;  they  have  sung  of 
the  triumphs  of  God's  truth.  "The  Lord  is  my 
strength  and  my  song  and  is  become  my  sal- 
vation" was  sung  at  the  beginning  of  the  wilder- 
ness journey.  The  hymns  of  the  Church  have 
been  full  of  faith  in  the  triumph  of  Christ.  There- 
fore we  see  the  vital  relation  of  sacred  poetry 
to   worship. 

It  touches  the  heart  and  inspires  to  praise; 
it  lifts  us  on  the  wings  of  aspiration;  it  strength- 
ens  our    faith.      Praise,    desire,    faith  —  these 


124  Public  Worship 

all  the  gifts  of  song  —  are  likewise  the  vital 
elements  of  genuine  worship. 

"Our  hymns  spring  out  of  religious  experience 
at  its  best,  and  they  tend  to  lift  experience  to 
its  highest  levels.  The  very  cream  of  truth  and 
of  soul  life  is  gathered  into  them.  They  contain 
the  refined  riches,  the  precious  essences,  the  cut 
and  polished  jewels  of  Christianity  in  all  ages. 
They  are  truly  prophetic,  the  records  of  the 
insight  and  intuition  and  rapture  of  the  seer 
and  the  saint."  (Dr.  Waldo  Pratt.  *' Musical  Min- 
istries," p.  50.) 

The  development  of  English  hymnology  came 
from  the  spiritual  growth  of  the  Church.  The 
dogmatic  certainty  and  the  personal  devotion 
of  Puritanism  is  voiced  in  the  hymns  of  Isaac 
Watts.  The  love  of  Christ  and  the  larger  hope 
for  men  that  marked  the  evangelical  revival  is 
felt  in  the  verse  of  Charles  Wesley.  Cowper  and 
Newton  were  the  poets  of  the  evangelical  move- 
ment when  it  has  passed  into  definite  party  and 
creed.  Newman  and  Faber  express  the  unrest 
of  human  opinions  and  the  craving  for  the  peace 
of  authority  that  comes  through  venerable 
tradition  and  the  long  line  of  historic  faith.  The 
Anglo-Catholic  movement  in  its  access  of  loy- 
alty to  the  Church  and  its  increased  reverence 
and  dignity  of  worship  is  seen  in  the  hymns  of 


The  Worship  of  Sacred  Song  125 

How  and  Trench  and  Thring.  Bishop  Heber 
and  Andrew  Bonar  sound  the  compassion  and 
devotion  of  the  Missionary  Spirit.  And  Mr. 
Bliss  and  Mr.  Sankey  and  Mrs.  Crosby  have 
put  into  song  the  popular  revival  spirit  of  our 
day.  The  hymn  is  both  product  and  force  of 
the  religious  life  of  the  people. 

The  Office  of  Music.  In  the  Sanctuary  is 
no  less  important  than  that  of  the  hymn.  The-^ 
best  music  is  an  "inwardly  enlarging,  elevating, 
and  refining  force."  It  depends  not  solely  upon 
the  senses,  but  is  expressive  of  serious  and  high 
thought.  It  may  even  be  more  subtle  and  power- 
ful than  poetry  in  touching  the  feelings;  it  goes 
deeper  and  reaches  feelings  that  are  verily  too 
deep  for  words.  It  seems  to  lay  hold  upon  the 
very  life  of  the  spirit  and  so  has  to  do  with  the 
spiritual  condition  of  worship. 

As  in  its  most  thoughtful  form,  it  makes  its 
appeal  to  the  feelings,  music  is  the  truest  ex- 
pression of  the  emotions,  not  only  passing  moods 
of  feeling,  but  the  underlying  disposition.  In 
its  best  state,  it  is  a  breathing  forth  of  the  heart. 

And  music  is  not  only  the  voice  of  the  single 
soul,  but  it  possesses  a  high  social  quality.  It 
unites  men  in  feeling.  ven  those  who  might 
not  agree  as  to  the  sentiments  of  the  hymn, 


126  Public  Worship 

feel     a     kinship     and     join     heartily     in     the 
music. 

It  is  striking  that  in  hymnology  and  sacred 
music,  the  unity  of  the  Church  is  prophesied 
and  foreshadowed.  We  sing  the  hymns  of  the 
Catholic  Newman  and  Faber  with  as  much 
delight  as  those  of  the  Puritan  Watts.  An 
English  Unitarian  has  written  of  the  glory  of 
the  cross, 

"In  the  Cross  of  Christ  I  glory," 

and  his  American  brother  has  interpreted  most 
deeply   its   love: 

"0  Love  Divine  that  stooped  to  share 
Our  sharpest  pang,  our  bitterest  tear." 

Then  music,  as  the  form  of  beauty,  in  a  certain 
sense  detaches  the  mind  from  the  world.  So 
for  the  moment  it  helps  to  emancipate  the 
mind  from  its  prejudices,  to  annul  the  force  of 
habit,  to  calm  the  agitation  of  passion  and 
charge  the  spirit  with  noble  sentiments.  It  is 
here  that  the  teaching  force  of  music  is  felt. 

When  we  join  the  inspiring  lyric  with  inspiring 
music,  we  have  devotional  expression  of  the 
highest   form   and   value. 

"In  all  great  religious  movements  the  people 
have  been  inspired  with  a  passion  for  singing. 
They  have  sung  their  creed;  it  seems  the  freest 


The  Worship  of  Sacred  Song  127 

and  most  natural  way  of  declaring  their  trium- 
phant beUef  in  great  Christian  truths,  forgotten 
or  denied  in  previous  times  of  spiritual  depression 
and  now  restored  to  their  rightful  place  in  the 
thought  and  life  of  the  Church.  Song  has 
expressed  and  intensified  to  enthusiasm  their 
new  faith,  their  new  joy,  their  new  determination 
to  do  the  will  of  God.  Song  has  consoled  their 
sorrows,  and  sustained  their  courage  in  the 
presence  of  danger.  When  a  great  assembly, 
in  a  church  or  on  a  hillside,  has  united  in  a  mourn- 
ful confession  of  sin,  or  a  pathetic  appeal  to  the 
Divine  Mercy,  or  in  exulting  thanksgiving  for 
salvation,  there  has  been  created  in  a  thousand 
hearts  that  vivid  consciousness  of  sharing  a 
common  spiritual  life  which  gives  new  energy 
to  religious  faith  and  new  depth  to  religious 
emotion.  When  we  find  each  other,  we  are  in 
the  right  way  to  find  God.  Sometimes,  no 
doubt,  when  listening  to  a  solitary  singer,  as 
when  listening  to  a  solitary  speaker,  a  whole 
congregation  may  become  conscious  of  sharing 
a  common  fear,  a  common  sorrow,  a  common 
hope,  a  common  trust,  a  common  joy;  but  this 
consciousness  of  a  universal  sympathy  is  far 
more  certainly  and  far  more  strongly  developed 
when  the  common  emotion  gives  pathos  and 
tenderness,  vehemence  and  energy,  to  the  great 


128  Public  Worship 

wave  of  song  which  every  voice,  the  rudest  as 
well  as  the  most  cultivated,  assists  to  swell. 
This  I  believe  explains  in  part  the  power  which 
psalmody  exerts  over  the  religious  life;  and  I 
think  that  the  explanation  is  confirmed  by  the 
fact  that  it  is  the  songs  which  people  have  sung 
with  others  which  they  delight  to  sing  alone. 
While  they  sing,  they  recover  in  some  measure 
the  consciousness  of  fellowship  with  other  Chris- 
tian souls."     (R.  W.  Dale.  "  Lectures,'*  p.  274.) 

We  infer  from  the  discussion  that  vocal  musici^ 
in  public  worship  has  a  twofold  function:  that  of 
expression  and  that  of  impression.  Expression 
is  the  first  and  foremost,  the  expression  of  relig- 
ious feeling,  adoration,  penitence,  thanksgiving, 
longing,  the  voice  of  the  people  to  God,  the 
expression  of  Christian  faith  and  hope,  the  voice 
of  a  glad  and  triumphant  faith. 

The  function  of  impression  that  church  music 
is  to  perform  is  a  true  but  minor  one,  that  of 
attraction,  making  sensitive  and  reaching  the 
will  and  conscience  through  the  emotions. 
"Holy,  holy,  holy.  Lord  God  Almighty"  is  a 
hymn  of  expression,  the  natural  and  fitting  voice 
of  the  congregation.     While 

"  Come,  ye  disconsolate,  where'er  ye  languish," 

is  a  hymn  of  impression,  sung  to  men,  to  awaken 
their  need  and  sense  of  God. 


The  Worship  of  Sacred  Song  129 

The  music  of  expression  often  makes  the 
deepest  impression  on  the  hearers.  The  feehngs 
are  moved  indirectly,  by  new  views  of  truth  and 
by  the  example  of  praise.  And  this  impressive 
influence  of  sacred  music  is  no  violation  of  the 
principle  that  the  chief  office  of  music  is  ex- 
pressive. In  fact  its  influence  is  in  proportion  as 
the  latter  purpose  is  realized. 

The  General  Principles  of  Church  Music. 
—  What  shall  be  the  choice  of  hymns?  It  is  an 
axiom  to  say  that  the  hymn  should  be  genuine 
poetry,  more  than  the  metrical  version  of  de- 
votional thought.  Yet  the  strict  application 
of  this  simple  and  fundamental  rule  would 
exclude  more  than  half  of  the  hymns  in  the 
usual  collections. 

"O  God!  our  help  in  ages  past"  has  few  equals 
for  simple  grandeur,  but  a  true  poetic  taste 
forbids  the  use  of  the  majority  of  Watts's  hymns. 
The  ministry  must  cultivate  a  true  poetic  taste 
as  the  help  to  the  devotional  spirit.  And  we  are 
vigorously  to  choose  those  hymns  that  are  the 
true  poetic  expression  of  religious  sentiment. 
A  few  of  the  modern  revival  hymns  make  quick 
appeal  to  the  popular  heart,  are  easily  sung, 
and  may  be  the  teachers  of  religious  life.  The 
majority  of   them  are  shallow  in  thought  and 


130  Public  Worship 

without  musical  worth.  But  in  all  matters  of 
education  we  must  help  men  as  we  find  them, 
and  patiently  lift  them  to  better  things. 

We  should  select  hymns  of  the  best  and 
simplest  lyric  forms.  The  peculiar  metrical  form 
of  some  hymns,  true  poetry,  should  properly 
exclude  them  from  Church  use.  Such  a  beauti- 
ful hymn  as  that  of  Jones  Very: 

"Wilt  thou  not  visit  me? 

The  plant  beside  me  feels  thy  gentle  dew  ; 
Each  blade  of  grass  I  see. 
From  thy  deep  earth  its  quickening  moisture  drew, " 

is  not  to  be  chosen  for  congregational  use  because 
its  metre  is  too  peculiar  for  united  expression, 
and  it  voices  the  desire  of  the  single  soul  more 
than  of  the  many. 

Many  hymns  have  outlived  their  usefulness. 
They  were  local  and  personal  in  colouring, 
expression  of  states  that  seem  exaggerated  or 
false  to  the  Christian  consciousness  of  the  present. 
The  hymn  should  be  the  living  voice,  not  the 
echo  of  the  past.  And  I  think  that  we  should 
use  a  greater  number  of  adoring,  grateful, 
triumphant  hymns.  We  sing  too  many  in  the 
minor  key.  We  need  to  be  lifted  out  of  weariness 
and  depression  and  borne  upward  in  our  praise. 

"The  complaint  I  make  is  that  the  hymns 
which  have  been  written  for  the  last  quarter 


The  Worship  of  Sacred  Song  131 

of  a  century  have  no  faith  or  hope  or  joy  in  them; 
they  are  all  tears  and  sighs;  they  might  have 
been  written  by  people  who  never  heard  of  the 
liberty  with  which  Christ  has  made  his  people 
free.  Moreover  they  are  singularly  restricted 
in  their  subjects.  They  are  mostly  about 
heaven  or  about  the  human  side  of  our  Lord's 
character  and  life,  and  in  both  cases  are  miser-*'^ 
ably  sentimental.  They  are  women's  hymns 
rather  than  men's;  and  they  are  the  hymns  of 
very  weak,  hysterical  women  too.  Those  about 
our  Lord  are  written  in  the  style  in  which 
Romanists  write  about  their  saints;  there  is 
hardly  ever  any  vision  of  the  glory  and  majesty 
which  shine  through  all  His  sufferings  and  shame. 
They  excite  pity  rather  than  reverence.  No 
man  could  do  a  better  service  for  the  Church 
just  now  than  by  writing  a  score  of  hymns 
inspired  with  the  spirit  of  the  *Te  Deu7n\'^ 
(Doctor  Dale  to  Th.  H.  Gill.) 

The  minister  should  study  hymnology,  as  he 
does  Scripture  and  prayers,  that  he  may  feed 
his  own  soul  and  serve  his  people  the  best.  He 
should  know  the  hymn-book  of  his  own  church, 
that  he  may  make  a  wiie  choice  of  hymns  for 
every  service,  and  cultivate  the  taste  of  his 
people  for  the  best  hymns.  There  is  danger- 
that  he  follow  his  personal  taste  and  conjfine 


132  Public  Worship 

his  choice  to  a  few  favourite  hymns,  and 
ignore  the  need  of  the  people  and  the  riches  of 
hymnology. 

The  Relation  Between  the  Music  and  the 
Hymn.  —  This  may  be  rather  the  matter  for  the 
musicians  of  the  Church  and  for  the  book- 
makers. But  the  demand  of  the  Church  will 
partly  govern  the  supply,  and  it  is  best  for  us 
to  have  definite  ideals.  It  seems  a  reasonable, 
principle  that  only  sacred  music  should  be  used 
in  worship,  and  that  there  should  be  exact 
correspondence  between  music  and  hymn. 
And  yet  secular  melodies  are  often  wedded  to 
sacred  words,  and  men  think  that  in  some  way 
the  sacred  place  and  the  sacred  words  will 
sanctify  the  music.  "Don't  let  the  devil  have 
all  the  best  tunes"  is  the  common  argument. 
The  suflficient  answer  is  —  if  they  are  his  tunes, 
he  should  have  them.  This  joining  of  sacred 
words  and  secular  music  is  certainly  a  super- 
ficial view  of  music.  Every  piece  of  music 
worth  the  name  has  a  motif,  an  essential  spirit, 
exactly  fitted  to  the  ministry  it  was  intended 
to  perform.  If  it  is  filled  with  a  sensuous, 
pleasure-loving  spirit,  it  will  minister  to  nothing 
else  in  its  final  effect,  no  matter  whether  it  be 
set  to  "Jesus,  Lover  of  My  Soul,"  or  "Nearer 


The  Worship  of  Sacred  Song  133 

My  God,  to  Thee."  As  Doctor  Blodgett,  an 
authority  in  church  music,  has  so  strongly  said: 
"The  fact  is  that  all  music,  worthy  to  be  called 
by  the  name,  is  the  expression  of  some  special 
and  intense  spiritual  state,  the  whole  quality 
and  force  of  which  are  breathed  into  the  com- 
position, and  communicated  in  strictest  integ- 
rity to  every  hearer,  in  varying  intensity  and 
definiteness,  according  to  his  sensitiveness  and 
culture,  but  affecting  every  one  after  the  same 
fashion  and  swaying  his  thought  and  feeling  into 
essential  accord  with  it,  whether  he  will  or  no." 
("The    Place    of    Music    in    Public    Worship," 

p.   11.) 

Music,  as  far  as  it  is  congregational,  should 
be  largely  expressive.  As  it  makes  its  appeal  to 
the  feelings,  and  is  the  language  of  emotion, 
this  would  rule  out  that  large  class  of  hymns 
and  music  that  is  didactic.  All  hymns  that 
teach  doctrine  solely  and  directly,  those  that  are 
calls  to  the  impenitent  or  any  special  class, 
cannot  in  the  best  sense  be  the  voice  of  the  con- 
gregation in  worship,  and  so  have  little  place 
in  such  singing.  The  chief  use  of  such  hymns 
is  that  of  being  sung  for  and  to  the  congregation 
and  not  by  them.  The  principle  should  be 
applied  wisely.  The  strict  application  would 
sometimes  weaken  the  power  of  congregational 


184  Public  Worship 

singing.  The  use  by  the  people  of  impressive 
hymns,  voices  of  penitence  and  faith,  the  calls 
to  the  impenitent,  may  be  nobly  pathetic  and 
moving. 

The    music    should    be    congregational.    The 
people  should  rise  as  a  significant  and  helpful 
position    toward    united    action.      The    hymns 
and  the  music  should  be  chosen  in  reference  to 
the  people,  their  need  and  ability,  and  the  people 
should  sing.     No  other  music  is  so  worshipful. 
The  people  have  no  right  to  delegate  this  duty 
and  privilege  to  the  choir.     The  choir  is  to  lead 
the  congregational  music  and   sing  such  other 
pieces  as  shall  promote  the   spirit  of  worship 
or  impress  the   special   truth   of   the  hour.     A 
quartet  may  not  be  the  invention  of  the  Evil 
One,  as  Mr.  Moody  once  impulsively  said,  but 
it  is  not  the  best  leader  of  the  worship  of  praise. 
The  volume  of  sound  is  not  sufiicient  for  inspir- 
ing leadership,  and  the  taste  of  the  individual 
singers  is  too  apt  to  triumph  over  the  need  of 
the  people.     The  people  do  not  easily  follow  the 
lead  of  a  quartet.   It  will  be  hard  to  find  a  quartet 
in  a  single  great  English  or  Scotch  church,  so 
completely  has  the  revival  of  music  brought  in 
chorus    and    congregational  singing.     A  chorus, 
with  independent  voices  for  special  work,  is  the 
most  helpful  choir. 


The  Worship  of  Sacred  Song  135 

"The  anthem  is  one  of  the  most  helpful  parts 
of  the  service.  I  don't  think  that  any  sermon 
on  the  words,  *The  Lord  is  mindful  of  His  Own,' 
could  do  so  much  for  me  as  the  anthem  when  it 
is  well  sung."     ("Dale,  Life  of,"  p.  533.)     . 

There  should  be  growth  in  the  music  of  wor- 
ship. At  the  beginning  it  should  be  adjusted 
to  the  spiritual  condition  of  the  average  wor- 
shipper who  really  desires  to  meet  God.  The 
first  hymn  should  be  general  in  character,  with 
music  that  is  inspiring,  something  that  the 
people  will  love  to  sing.  Then  the  service 
should  move  steadily  on  in  a  given  direction  of 
thought  and  feeling,  each  hymn  and  selection 
by  the  choir,  being  helpful  in  itself,  and  also 
an  appreciable  advance  in  the  line  of  worship 
and  influence. 

There  Are  Practical  Difficulties  in  the 
Worship  of  Song.  —  The  first  difficulty  is  the 
wrong  conception  of  church  music.  It  is  con- 
sidered by  some  in  the  spirit  of  the  concert 
hall.  They  ignore  or  forget  the  breadth  of  the 
invitation  and  command  to  the  praises  of  the 
Church.  They  listen  to  the  choir  as  to  a  per- 
formance, and  judge  it  by  its  artistic  value.  Or 
if  they  take  part  in  congregational  singing,  their 
delight  is  only  "a  sensuous  one  in  pretty  and 


136  Public  Worship 

sweet  tunes,   and  in  the  transient   enthusiasm 
awakened  by  a  full  body  of  sound." 

A  second  practical  difficulty  is  the  lack  of 
musical  training  among  the  people.  It  is  true 
in  city  congregations,  and  in  some  country 
churches  it  is  a  serious  hindrance  to  worthy 
congregational  worship.  It  is  difficult  to  find 
trained  voices  for  the  choir,  and  still  more  to 
find  the  taste  and  training  among  the  people 
necessary  for  intelligent  and  worshipful  singing. 
And  a  third  serious  difficulty  is  with  the  choir 
itself.  Its  assumption  on  the  one  hand  of 
musical  superiority,  ruling  the  entire  musical 
service,  regardless  of  pastor  and  people;  and  on 
the  other  hand,  attempting  ambitious  perform- 
ances, forgetting  the  power  of  simple  music. 

How  Shall  These  DifBculties  Be  Met?  — 
The  minister  is  to  meet  them,  for  he  has  no  right 
to  resign  his  leadership  of  the  entire  service  of 
worship.  The  advice  sometimes  given  to  young 
ministers  —  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
choir  —  is  the  worst  possible  advice.  There 
never  can  be  the  development  of  proper  music 
in  the  church  without  the  intelligent,  wise,  sym- 
pathetic leadership  of  the  pastor.  And  here  is 
the  reason  for  the  proper  training  of  the  minister 
in  sacred  music.     The  pulpit  must  teach  the 


The  Worship  of  Sacred  Song  137 

importance  of  the  worship  of  song.  The  action  of 
the  minister  in  the  pulpit  is  significant  and  greatly 
influential.  He  should  be  as  attentive  and 
reverent  during  the  music  as  the  prayer.  The 
music  is  often  the  sincerest  prayer.  Freedom  from 
conversation,  from  the  reading  of  notices,  and 
from  attention  to  the  details  of  service  is  neces- 
sary for  a  worshipful  example  to  his  people. 
Rising  with  the  congregation  and  singing  the 
hymn  when  his  strength  will  permit  will  express 
his  part  with  the  people  in  worship.  An  occasional 
service  of  song,  with  talks  upon  hymn  writers 
and  the  history  and  use  of  notable  hymns,  will 
help  to  teach  the  people  the  importance  of  the 
service. 

The  character  of  organist,  chorister,  and 
singers  will  have  relation  to  the  spirit  of  worship. 
They  should  be  in  sympathy  with  the  church, 
reverent  and  earnest  in  temper,  making  their 
work  a  service  of  religion.  The  minister  is  to 
establish  and  maintain  the  most  cordial  rela- 
tion with  them.  Without  dictation,  he  is  to 
make  them  feel  that  their  work  and  his  is  in 
harmony  and  plan  together  the  worship  of 
each  day.  The  minister  is  to  appreciate  the 
work  of  his  choir  and  be  generous  in  the  expres- 
sion of  it. 

"No  argument  is  needed  to  show  how  important 


138  Public  Worship 

is  a  true  fraternal  sympathy  between  the  pastor 
and  the  organist  or  choir-master  and  the  singers 
of  the  choir.  Whether  a  state  of  sympathy 
exists  is  usually  determined  by  the  pastor's 
own  action,  except  in  cases  where  there  is  some 
manifest  folly  in  the  plan  of  organization  adopted 
by  the  Church  itself  independently  of  the  pastor. 
Musical  people  are  like  others  in  being  sus- 
ceptible to  kindliness  and  respectful  consideration 
to  manly  and  noble  intentions,  to  an  intelligent 
and  judicious  policy,  to  genuine  spiritual  warmth. 
Indeed  their  very  artistic  training  makes  them 
susceptible  to  these  things  in  a  peculiar  degree. 
Instead,  therefore,  of  treating  them  with  timidity 
or  suspicion  or  disdain,  the  pastor  should  assume 
that  he  may  count  on  them  as  hearty  sympa- 
thizers in  achieving  whatever  things  are  true, 
honourable,  lovely,  and  gracious."  (Pratt, 
"Musical  Ministers,"  p.  148.) 

There  are  enough  fair  voices  in  nearly  every 
congregation  to  furnish  a  helpful  choir;  and  it 
is  the  pastor's  business  to  see  that  they  are  per- 
suaded to  enter  upon  this  service  of  God  and 
properly  trained  for  it.  And  by  personal  in- 
fluence, the  pastor  can  make  the  people  feel 
the  dignity  and  worth  of  the  worship  of  praise. 

A  recent  musical  journal  has  these  fitting 
words: 


The  Worship  of  Sacred  Song  139 

The  minister  and  the  musician  are  of  the  same  lin- 
eage; their  work  is  one.  The  latter  is,  indeed,  in  a  sense 
subordinate  to  the  former,  but  only  as  a  younger 
brother  is  inferior  to  the  first-born.  If,  therefore,  the 
one  should  be  holy,  so  should  the  other.  There  are 
young  men  and  women  of  musical  ability  in  mul- 
titudes, who  dream  of  doing  good  in  a  grand  way; 
here  is  a  field  worthy  of  them.  Let  them  cultivate 
their  powers  as  highly  as  may  be;  and  then  present 
themselves  to  the  Church  as  candidates  for  Levitical 
orders.  Let  them  take  possession  of  the  choir  and  the 
organ,  and  sanctify  them  to  holy  uses;  then  pride  will 
give  place  to  devotion,  jealousy  will  vanish  before 
pious  zeal,  and  music  will  find  its  true  place  in  Chris- 
tian worship. 

It  is  absolutely  essential  to  proper  congre- 
gational singing  that  the  people  receive  some 
systematic  training  in  sacred  music.  The  teach- 
ing of  music  in  our  public  schools  should  tell 
upon  our  devotional  singing,  but  this  is  not 
enough.  Only  a  small  part  of  our  congregations 
will  have  such  opportunities  for  vocal  training. 
The  matter  should  receive  care  from  the  pastor 
and  oflScers  of  the  church. 

In  many  churches,  the  chorister  can  be  secured 
to  train  the  congregation.  A  few  minutes  before 
or  after  the  mid-week  meeting  can  be  used  for 
this  purpose.    A  choral  society  can  be  formed 


140  Public  Worship 

to  meet  through  the  winter  months,  or  a  regular 
class  taught  once  a  week.  In  smaller  places, 
the  several  congregations  should  unite  in  securing 
a  good  singing-master  for  a  part  of  the  year.  It 
is  not  a  visionary  plan.  And  we  shall  complain 
of  the  spiritless  singing,  of  "hosannas  lan- 
guishing on  the  lips,"  until  some  vigorous  and 
continuous  effort  is  made  to  teach  the  people, 
"young  men  and  maidens,  old  men  and  children," 
to  praise  the  Lord. 

It  is  desirable  that  the  singing  of  the  family 
circle,  the  Bible  school,  and  the  devotional  meet- 
ings should  be  a  preparation  for  the  public  wor- 
ship of  the  church.  And  to  this  end,  the  hymns 
of  the  church  should  in  large  part  be  used,  that 
all  become  familiar  with  and  learn  to  love  the 
language  and  the  music  of  such  worship.  And 
the  church  officers  should  have  hymn  books  with 
tunes  placed  in  the  pews. 

Sacred  song  should  not  be  left  to  the  taste 
and  impulse  of  the  individual.  The  church 
should  labour  as  a  society  to  make  its  praise 
worthy  of  its  faith. 


LECTURE  IX 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FREE 
WORSHIP 


OUTLINE 

The  Development  Means  Evolution,  not  Revolution. 
Worship  Should  Express  a  Comprehensive  Christianity. 
The  Principles  of  Development. 

Unity.  —  The    message    and    unity.     The  relation 

of  variety  to  unity. 
Harmony.  —  The  relation  of  the  hymns  and  prayers 

to  harmony. 
IntelHgibility.  —  Should  the  hymns  be  read?    The 
part  of  choir  and  congregation. 
Suggested  Orders  of  Service. 

What  Can  be  Done  to  Increase  the  Life  and  Fervour  of 

Worship. 

The  minister's  part.  Study.  Cultivation  of  lit- 
urgical sense.  The  reverential  spirit  among  the 
people.     The  social  spirit  in  worship. 


142 


IX 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FREE 
WORSHIP 

Our  influence  on  the  worship  of  any  congre- 
gation should  be  evolution  and  not  revolution. 
We  should  attempt  no  sudden  changes,  nothing 
that  would  possibly  weaken  the  conviction  or 
devotional  habit  of  the  people.  We  must  have' 
the  devotion  and  patience  to  enrich  the  spiritual 
life  and  cultivate  the  spirit  of  reverence,  and  the 
taste  for  nobler  form,  before  insisting  that  such 
forms  shall  alone  be  used.  We  must  have  the 
wisdom  to  build  on  existing  forms  as  far  as  pos- 
sible; to  take  the  present  ability  and  liking  and 
gradually  help  it  to  better  things. 

One  may  go  to  a  church  where  the  Gospel 
Songs,  the  more  easy  and  jingling  tunes,  are 
customary  music.  It  would  certainly  be  foolish 
to  tell  them  how  vulgar  and  unworthy  the  taste, 
and  to  insist  at  once  upon  the  nobler  music  of 
the  Church.  Little  by  little,  without  comparison 
or  censure,  by  personal  practice,  one  can  turn 

143 


144  Public  Worship 

their  thought  to  finer  poetry  and  truer  music, 
elevating  the  popular  taste.  And  ever  the 
whole  life  of  the  Church  must  grow,  deepen 
and  enrich,  if  the  nobler  forms  are  to  be  the 
fitting  expression  of  the  soul. 

There  has  been  an  easy  teaching  of  truth  and 
simple  pathos  and  quick  appeal  to  the  social 
element  in  such  music  that  has  made  it  an  in- 
strument in  reaching  the  multitudes.  If  it  has 
sometimes  been  shallow  and  sensational,  so  has 
their  faith  and  life.  Not  only  must  we  strive 
after  a  nobler  worship,  the  forms  we  use  being 
teachers,  promoters  of  reverence  and  aspiration, 
but  the  life  itself  must  grow  or  the  worship  is 
but  a  hollow  form. 

Our  worship  should  express  a  comprehensive  '/ 
Christianity,  as  broad  and  vital  as  the  Gospel 
itself.     In  the  hymns  we  sing  and  the  prayers 
we  offer,  and  the  forms  of  church  life  that  become 
the  tests  of  discipleship  and  the  expressions  of 
service,  we  must  always  lay  hold  of  the  essential 
things  of  religion  and  minister  to  the  variety  of    ^ 
natures   in  the  household   of  faith.     We   must, 
not  develop  a  narrow  or  eccentric  piety.     We 
must  not  shut  out  or  fail  to  feed  the  natures  of 
all  who  truly  desire  to  serve  God.  / 

"There  are  a  great  many  men,  —  merchants,  v  ' 
bankers,    lawyers,    manufacturers,   mechanics  — 


The  Development  of  Free  Worship       145 

who  will  join  heartily  in  dignified  public  worship, 
and  will  give  time,  money,  and  strength,  to  what- 
ever works  of  righteousness  and  charity  the 
Church  may  reasonably  lay  upon  them,  who 
simply  cannot  and  will  not,  wear  their  hearts 
upon  their  sleeves,  or  give  expression  to  their 
inmost  personal  experience  in  a  social  meeting. 
By  making  such  social  expression  of  personal 
religious  experience  practically  synonymous 
with  the  religious  life,  you  are  excluding  this 
type  of  men  from  the  fellowship  of  the  spiritual 
life  as  effectively  as  if  you  stationed  a  regiment 
of  soldiers  with  fixed  bayonets  around  the  church 
edifice."  (President  Hyde,  Outlook,  Dec.  8, 
1900.) 

We  are  to  strive  with  patient  persistence  at 
intelligible,  spiritual  progress.  Whatever  we 
do  should  have  intellectual  and  spiritual  signif- 
icance. President  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall's 
principles  of  unity  and  intelligibility  are  self- 
evident.  Harmony  might  well  be  added  as  a 
third. 

There  should  be  a  study  in  each  service  to*>^' 
produce  unity.     This  unity,  as  in  the  sermon,  ^ 
will  come  from  singleness  of  theme  and  single- 
ness  of   purpose.     If    we     do   not    have   some 
definite  truth  to  be  expressed  by  each  service, 
and  some  definite  end  to  be  gained,  we  can  have 


146  Public  Worship 

no  unity.  If  we  give  thought  to  each  service, 
we  shall  certainly  have  in  mind  something  that 
we  wish  to  secure.  And  this  certain  thing  in  our 
own  mind  will  certainly  secure  order  in  the  parts 
of  worship  and  definite  impression  upon  the 
minds  of  the  people.  It  is  a  serious  criticism 
upon  us  as  leaders  of  the  Church,  if  men  say  that 
they  can  perceive  no  system  in  our  work  from 
Sunday  to  Sunday,  either  in  our  teaching  or  in 
our  worship.  It  is  truly  a  serious  burden  put 
upon  us  as  leaders  of  free  worship,  but  there  is 
no  way  of  escape  save  into  a  liturgical  church 
where  everything  is  fixed  for  us.  In  free  worship, 
intelligent  thought  must  plan  and  direct  as 
fully  as  in  the  sermon. 

There  are  certain  permanent  elements  in  the: 
service,  as  confession  of  faith,  ascription  of 
praise,  confession  of  sin,  dedication  of  life,  seek- 
ing for  help.  But  the  new  elements  of  each 
service  consist  of  the  present  life  of  the  people, 
the  need  and  desire  of  the  day,  and  the  truth 
then  to  be  taught.  The  hymns,  the  Scripture 
lessons,  the  prayers,  the  sermon,  may  all  have 
a  certain  truth  in  mind  and  move  on  with  grow- 
ing volume  toward  a  certain  end. 

The  message  of  the  hour  will  most  naturally 
furnish  the  unity  of  the  service.  As  in  Catholic 
and  Oriental  churches,   the  sacrament  of    the 


The  Development  of  Free  Worship       147 

Lord's  Table  has  been  the  centre  and  norm  of 
development,  in  Protestant  churches  the  altar 
is  the  pulpit  and  the  directing  force  is  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Word  of  God.  If  anything  like  a 
church  year  is  followed,  or  if  a  large  prevision 
is  had,  and  a  plan  of  pulpit  instruction  formed 
looking  through  several  weeks  or  months,  the 
truths  would  naturally  direct  the  choice  of 
Scripture  lessons,  and  more  or  less  shape  the  form 
of  the  prayers  and  the  selection  of  the  hymns. 
If  there  is  some  truth  that  so  seizes  the  preacher 
that  he  must  speak  it,  if  there  is  some  need  of 
men  that  so  presses  upon  his  mind  and  heart 
that  he  must  attempt  the  answer  in  his  sermon, 
then  that  truth  or  need  will  dominate  his  life 
for  the  time,  and  he  will  find  authority  for  it  in 
God's  Word,  and  he  will  set  the  people  singing 
it;  and  what  he  so  earnestly  desires  and  feels 
that  the  people  must  have,  he  will  ask  for  in  his 
prayers  and  help  the  people  to  ask  for  them- 
selves. The  Scripture  will  suggest  or  illustrate 
the  truth,  the  hymns  will  prepare  the  heart  for 
the  truth,  or  be  the  expression  if  it,  or  the  appeal 
for  it;  and  the  prayers,  while  never  forgetting 
the  spirit  and  purpose  of  a  people's  worship, 
never  didactic  or  anticipating  and  repeating  the 
exact  truth  of  the  sermon,  will  be  shaped  by  that 
truth,  will  have  its  form  and  colouring.     It  is 


148  Public  Worship 

a  practical  and  useful  principle  then  to  let  the 
truth  for  the  hour  guide  the  worship  of  the  hour. 

The  principle  of  unity  may  be  overworked. 
The  general  interests  of  worship,  the  varied  and 
comprehensive  expression  of  the  people,  may 
be  overlooked  in  the  desire  to  gain  singleness  of 
impression.  We  must  remember  that  this 
matter  of  unity  does  not  mean  sameness.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  have  everything  on  the  same 
key,  everything  teaching  the  same  truth,  to 
have  unity  of  impression. 

Sometimes  alternation  and  variety  relieve 
the  mind,  bring  in  other  motives,  that  the  theme 
may  be  returned  to  with  added  force.  A  hymn 
of  the  very  opposite  nature  from  the  sermon 
may  throw  the  light  of  contrast  upon  the  truth. 
It  would  not  be  well  for  the  service  to  move 
on  in  a  straight  line.  We  need  not  lose  single- 
ness of  purpose  in  granting  the  natural  demand 
of  the  mind  for  variety. 

W^e  shall  seek  a  true  harmony  in  the  service  \/\/J 
between  the  objective  and  the  subjective,  between 
the  didactic  and  the  devotional.  The  sermon 
and  the  worship  will  have  a  true  balance.  No 
one  part  will  seem  exalted  at  the  expense  of 
another. 

Notice  how  the  hymns  may  help  the  harmony 
of  service.     The  first  hymn  general,  lifting  up 


The  Development  of  Free  Worship       149 

of  the  heart  to  God,  something  to  break  the  spell 
of  worldliness  and  create  the  sense  of  God. 
True  worship  demands  that  the  people  should 
find  voice  at  the  beginning,  that  reverence  and 
fellowship  may  be  cultivated  and  that  the  ser- 
vice be  felt  at  once  as  the  people's.  Then  the 
second  hymn,  one  that  may  be  more  impressive 
in  its  character,  touching  the  spiritual  sensi- 
bilities and  preparing  the  heart  for  the  truth; 
and  the  final  hymn  one  that  may  voice  the  great 
lesson  of  the  Word. 

In  the  new  ''Directory  for  Public  Worship," 
prepared  by  the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland, 
a  prayer  for  illumination  precedes  the  sermon. 

"The  preaching  of  the  Word  is  so  important, 
and  the  responsibilties  both  of  preacher  and 
hearers  are  so  great,  that  it  is  fitting  and  desir- 
able that  the  sermon  or  lecture  should  have  a 
brief  prayer  specially  assigned  to  itself.  This 
is  commonly  known  as  the  Prayer  for  Illumina- 
tion, or  for  the  special  presence  and  power  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  with  the  Word.  A  hymn  con- 
taining petitions  and  aspirations  for  the  Spirit 
may  sometimes  take  the  place  of  this  prayer." 

In  our  churches,  it  seems  far  better  to  have 
the  hymn  the  immediate  preparation  for  the 
sermon.  We  have  many  hymns  that  are  true 
petitions.     Croly's    "Spirit    of     God,    descend 


150  Public  Worship 

upon  my  heart,"  or  Rawson's  "Come  to  our 
poor  nature's  night,"  or  Johnson's  "Father,  in 
Thy  mysterious  presence  kneehng,"  will  make  the 
heart  tender  and  sensitive,  fill  it  with  holy  desire, 
and  so  be  a  true  preparation  for  the  hearing  of 
the  Word. 

Notice  how  the  prayers  may  increase  the 
harmony  of  worship. 

They  should  not  repeat  each  other;  each  should 
be  in  its  place,  of  peculiar  thought  and  spirit; 
and  each  an  appreciable  advance  in  the  idea  of 
the   hour. 

Invocation  or  Lord's  Prayer. —  The  invo- 
cation will  be  most  helpful  if  clothed  largely 
in  Scripture  language,  such  simple  and  famil- 
iar forms  that  the  people  will  easily  and  heartily 
join  in  it.  An  example  from  "The  New  Di- 
rectory of  Public  Worship'*  gives  a  simple, 
direct,  and  Scriptural  invocation: 

Almighty  and  everlasting  God,  teach  us  to  worship 
thee  Who  art  a  Spirit,  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  Take 
away  all  blindness  of  heart,  all  coldness  and  backward- 
ness of  spirit.  Open  thou  our  lips,  and  our  mouths 
shall  show  forth  thy  praise.  Open  our  hearts  to  re- 
ceive thy  truth  in  the  love  of  it.  May  Christ  be  glo- 
rified in  the  preaching  of  His  Gospel,  and  in  all  the 
services  of  His  house  this  day  for  His  name's  sake. 
Amen. 


The  Development  of  Free  Worship       151 
Here  is  one  wholly  in  the  words  of  a  Psalm.  (84.) 

O  Lord  God  of  Hosts,  hear  our  prayer;  give  ear, 
O  God  of  Jacob.  A  day  in  thy  courts  is  better  than 
a  thousand.  We  had  rather  stand  at  the  threshold 
of  thy  house  than  dwell  in  the  tents  of  wickedness. 
O  Lord,  be  our  sun  and  shield;  give  us  grace  and 
glory.  Withhold  no  good  thing  from  us.  O  Lord  of 
Hosts,  bless  us  who  trust  in  thee. 

Confession. —  If  such  a  short  prayer  could 
follow  the  Psalter,  it  would  put  us  in  har- 
mony with  the  Reformed  churches  of  the 
Continent  and  the  Church  of  England,  that 
adopted  this  special  order  from  the  Continent; 
and  also  emphasize  the  fact  of  human  need,  too 
often  ignored  in  the  thought  of  to-day.  It 
would  be  a  true  preparation  for  worship  and 
teaching.  And  furthermore  it  would  keep  the 
general  prayer  from  undue  length  and  to  its 
strict  character  of  thanksgiving  and  personal 
and  general  petition. 

The  Confession  of  Sin,  adopted  by  the  Pro- 
testant church  of  Zurich,  1525,  has  for  almost 
four  centuries  been  on  the  lips  and  in  the  heart 
of  the  Reformed  church  all  over  the  world. 

The  General  or  Pastoral  Prayer. — ^Thanks- 
giving,    petition,    and    intercession.     In    these 


152  Public  Worship 

matters  we  must  not  be  content  with  only 
general  expressions,  but  at  times  mention  such 
particulars  as  shall  touch  and  arouse  the  minds  of 
the  congregation.  Take  the  matter  of  Thanks- 
giving as  example: 

A  prayer  of  general  thanksgiving,  however  fine 
and  impressive  it  may  be  to  a  spiritual  mind,  often 
seems  to  minds  not  spiritual  only  exaggerated  and 
unreal.  Its  power  is  due  to  its  touching  chords  that 
are  sensitive  and  quick  to  respond,  to  its  awakening 
memories  that  have  been  often  renewed  and  are  never 
far  to  seek. 

In  order  to  do  a  like  service  to  the  less  devout,  we 
must  mention  and  dwell  upon  the  special  mercies  of 
God,  we  must  touch  those  points  of  their  life  where 
they  cannot  but  acknowledge  the  hand  of  a  loving 
Father.  As  we  all  learn  to  know  the  sinfulness  of  our 
own  hearts  only  through  individual  acts  of  sin,  so  we 
learn  to  be  thankful  through  perceiving  the  specific 
acts  of  God's  goodness  in  our  daily  lives.  By  specify- 
ing them  in  prayer,  we  awaken  memories  in  hearts 
dull  and  slow,  and  by  means  of  that  lift  them  to 
gratitude  and  the  ascription  of  all  praise  to  the  giver 
of  all  good.  (See  particulars  in  "The  New  Di- 
rectory for  Public  Worship. ") 

The  Closing  Prayer  seeks  a  blessing  upon 
the  Word,  holding  to  the  single  thought  of  the 
hour. 


The  Development  of  Free  Worship       153 

Intelligibility. —  The  entire  service  of 
worship  should  be  intelligible;  the  people 
should  understand  it  and  feel  its  motives  that 
they  may  have  an  intelligent  and  hearty  part  in 
it.  This  means  that  the  minister  should  plan 
for  the  service  and  have  it  so  clearly  marked  out 
that  the  people  may  catch  its  meaning.  It 
means  that  he  interpret  with  his  voice  all  his 
parts  in  the  service,  the  Scripture,  the  hymns 
(when  read),  the  prayers.  We  must  read  and 
pray  with  the  Spirit  and  the  understanding  so 
that  even  he  that  filleth  the  place  of  the  un- 
learned  shall   say   Amen. 

Does  intelligibility  require  the  reading  of  the 
hymns  by  the  minister .f*  The  custom  of  reading 
the  hymns  began  when  there  were  no  or  few 
hymn-books  in  the  pews.  That  need  has  passed, 
and  yet  many  ministers  thoughtlessly  read  all 
the  hymns.  They  do  so  simply  because  it  has 
been  the  custom.  They  are  sticklers  for  what 
has  been.  The  hymn-book  in  the  hands  of  the 
people  and  the  need  of  economy  of  time  for  the 
fuller  service  to-day  should  cause  the  discon- 
tinuance of  the  habit  of  reading  the  hymns. 
The  reading  of  the  hymn  without  special  and  new 
interpretation  is  a  source  of  darkness  and  not  of 
light.  A  single  stanza  may  be  read  (especially 
at  the  opening  of  the  service),  to  fix  the  attention, 


154  Public  Worship 

to  unify  the  thought  and  feeling,  and  so  pro- 
mote the  spirit  of  worship.  And  whenever  in 
the  service  that  needs  to  be  secured  and  can  be 
by  the  reading  of  the  hymn,  one  should  not 
hesitate  to  read  it.  Sometimes  the  people 
sing  an  old  hymn  in  a  perfunctory  manner.  It 
is  so  familiar  that  they  sing  mechanically. 
Then  the  truth  is  to  be  given  a  new  significance. 
A  new  hymn  needs  often  to  be  interpreted  by 
the  voice. 

The  choir  must  be  taught  to  obey  the  law 
of  intelligibility.  They  must  not  sing  in  an 
unknown  tongue.  Distinctness  is  as  primal  in 
singing  as  in  speaking.  It  will  be  a  help  if  all 
the  pieces  by  the  choir,  sentences,  chants, 
anthems,  be  printed  in  full  on  the  order  of 
service,  or  distinct  references  made  to  the  books 
of  praise  so  that  the  people  may  follow  the 
words. 

And  the  congregation  must  be  taught  to  take 
their  part  in  worship,  thoughtfully  and  heartily, 
never  in  a  perfunctory  and  careless  way;  not 
mere  listeners  but  worshippers  in  heart  and  voice. 
This  result  is  not  an  easy  and  quick  attainment, 
but  will  certainly  follow  a  wise  and  persistent 
leadership.  The  best  books  of  worship  gen- 
erously provided  for  all  and  some  system  of 
training  will  be  a  condition  of  such  attainment. 


The  Development  of  Free  Worship       155 

SUGGESTED  ORDERS  OF  SERVICE 
I 

THE   UNITED   FREE   CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND 

1 .  Sentences  of  Scripture. 

2.  Invocation. 

3 .  Praise  —  Psalm  or  hymn, 

4 .  Scripture  —  Old  Testament. 

5.  Prayer  of  adoratioo,  thanksgiving,  confession 

and  petition. 

6.  Praise  —  Psalm   sung   or   chanted,    hymn    or 

anthem. 

7 .  Scripture  —  New  Testament. 

8 .  Praise  —  Hymn. 

9.  Prayer  of  Intercession,  with  Lord's  Prayer. 

10 .  Praise  —  Hymn. 

11.  Prayer  for  Illutaination. 

12.  Sermon. 

13.  Praise  —  Hymn. 

14 .  Prayer  for  bjessing  on  the  Word. 

15 .  Praise  —  Doxojogy. 

16.  Benedictioj^. 

II 

THE  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH   OP  BUFFALO,   N.   Y. 

1 .  Organ  and  Anthem. 

2.  Sentences  of  Scripture. 

3.  Doxology. 

4 .  Invocation,  Creed  and  Lord's  Prayer. 

5 .  Chant  —  Choir  and  congregation. 


156  Public  Worship 

6 .  Commandments,  responses  and  summary. 

7 .  Sentences  and  Prayer  of  Confession. 

8 .  Hymn. 

9 .  Psalter* —  Gloria  Patri. 

10 .  Scripture  Lesson  —  Te  Deum. 

11.  General  Prayer. 

12.  Sentences  —  Offering  and  prayer. 

13.  Hymn. 

14 .  Sermon. 

15.  Hymn. 

16 .  Prayer  and  Benediction. 


m 

BEIEFER  ORDER 

1.  Organ  (Anthem). 

2 .  Call  to  Worship.     Scripture  sentences. 

3 .  Doxology  or  hymn . 

4 .  Invocation  and  Lord's  Prayer. 

5 .  Psalter  —  Gloria  Patri. 

6 .  Prayer  of  Confession. 

7.  Hymn. 

8.  Scripture  Lessons;  Old  and  New  Testaments. 

(Creed). 

9 .  General  Prayer.     Thanksgiving  and  petition. 

10 .  Offering  —  Choir  —  Prayer. 

11.  Hymn. 

12.  Sermon. 

13.  Hymn. 

14 .  Prayer  and  benediction. 


The  Development  of  Free  Worship       157 

The  last  named  order  does  not  differ  mater- 
ially from  that  in  "Common  Worship,"  but  is 
somewhat  shorter  and  can  be  made  still  simpler 
without  marring  its  meaning. 

The  preface,  whether  Scripture  Call,  Invoca- 
tion, Hymn,  or  all  together,  should  give  the 
keynote  to  the  worship.  The  people  should 
jQrst  listen  to  the  Word  of  God,  so  the  Scripture 
should  come  early  in  the  service.  The  Psalter 
is  an  act  of  praise  and  should  be  followed  by 
brief  praise,  or  the  Gloria,  The  Creed  after 
the  Scripture  lesson  is  the  proper  response  to 
the  Word  of  God. 

Worship  now  moves  forward  into  more  intimate 
converse  with  God.  The  intellectual  side  has 
been  expressed  in  the  Scripture  lessons;  now  the 
heart  speaks  in  the  pastoral  prayer.  The  last 
prayer  with  the  benediction,  while  the  people 
are  seated,  secures  that  quiet  and  reverent  clos- 
ing of  the  service  that  will  deepen  the  impression 
of  truth. 

A  second  service  designed  to  win  those  not 
regular  worshippers  may  well  be  simpler  and  freer 
in  form.  Here  the  desire  to  gain  men  may  well 
govern  all  forms.  Father  Dolling  of  Poplar, 
East  London,  the  greatest  missioner  among  the 
poor  of  our  generation,  insisted  on  his  right  to 
adapt  the  liturgy  of  the  Established  Church  to 


158  Public  Worship 

the  needs  of  the  people,  and  more  than  once  lost 
his  charge  in  defence  of  his  liberty. 

Three  things  may  be  done  to  increase  the 
life  and  fervour  of  worship: 

The  first  of  all  is  for  the  minister  to  devote' 
himself  to  a  more  careful  and  spiritual  prepara- 
tion. He  is  the  leader  and  the  responsibility 
rests  chiefly  upon  him. 

Study  is  the  path  of  true  preparation.  The 
minister  is  to  study  the  prayers  and  hymns  of 
the  ages,  become  acquainted  with  the  forms 
used  in  other  churches,  and  make  himself  fa- 
miliar with  the  spirit  and  sentiment  of  his  own 
church.  Our  ministers  are  freemen  and  not 
bound  by  any  rules  save  those  of  firmness  and 
Christian  love.  We  can  enrich  our  thought  and 
forms  of  worship  from  whatever  source  we 
please.  We  may  go  to  Catholic  writers  as  well 
as  Protestant.  Can  we  not  unite  as  brethren 
to  make  our  ministry  of  worship  as  perfect  and 
helpful  as  possible  .^^  Preparation  demands  that 
we  give  to  the  Scripture  and  hymns  and  prayers 
some  of  the  earnest  thought  that  we  put  upon 
our  sermons.  To  select  the  hymns  after  we 
have  reached  the  church  and  to  shape  the  prayers 
while  the  hymns  are  being  sung  is  an  unworthy 
view  of  our  service. 

And  if  we  are  to  be  the  leaders  of  worship, 


The  Development  of  Free  Worship       159 

we  must  go  into  the  pulpit  with  spiritual  prep- 
aration. There  should  be  the  quiet  hour  of 
deep  meditation  and  spiritual  seeking,  the  con- 
scious dependence  upon  the  Holy  Spirit.  And 
with  such  girding  and  guiding  we  shall  be  able 
to  lift  the  people  into  the  apprehension  of 
spiritual  worship. 

There  is  something  more  needed  than  sincere 
piety  and  earnest  preparation  on  the  part  of  the 
minister.  It  might  be  called  the  liturgical  feel- 
ing, the  sense  of  fitness. 

Are  there  any  liturgical  laws  to  govern  the 
minister?  In  a  free  worship,  definite  laws  can- 
not be  laid  down,  but  certain  principles  may  be 
suggested,  as  already  stated  in  this  chapter. 
The  principles  may  take  this  summary:  Is  a 
certain  act  or  part  of  worship  in  the  right  place  .^ 
Will  it  be  the  proper  expression  of  the  religious 
life  and  will  it  tend  to  the  growth  of  such  life? 
It  is  the  sense  of  fitness.  It  is  the  feeling  of 
reverence,  the  singleness  of  mind  in  any  particular 
act  of  worship,  the  taste  that  will  exclude  the 
trivial  and  the  incongruous  and  choose  the  best. 

A  sense  of  fitness  could  not  announce  a  rum- 
mage sale  between  the  parts  of  a  communion 
service,  or  let  the  people  listen  to  a  sacred  con- 
cert before  finding  their  voices  in  worship. 

How    can    the    liturgical    sense    be    trained? 


160  Public  Worship 

By  whatever  cultivates  a  sense  of  reverence  and 
harmony;  by  the  study  of  liturgies  and  noble 
prayers  and  hymns;  by  familiarity  with  the  devo- 
tional parts  of  Scripture.  And  above  all,  by 
single-mindedness  in  worship,  suffering  nothing 
that  shall  divert  the  mind  from  the  aim  of  the 
hour  or  that  shall  not  contribute  to  spiritual 
expression  and  growth. 

Another  help  to  truer  worship  is  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  reverential  spirit  among  the  people. 
All  flippant  manner  and  speech  in  the  church  are 
to  be  avoided.  A  worshipful  attitude  is  to  be 
encouraged  in  prayer  and  singing.  The  church 
building  is  to  be  guarded  against  uses  whose 
associations  will  weaken  the  spirit  of  reverence. 
The  children  and  youth  are  to  be  taught  that 
worship  is  a  joyful  yet  solemn  act.  By  our 
attention  and  seriousness  and  preparation,  men 
are  to  feel  that  worship  is  an  act  of  intellect 
as  well  as  sentiment,  demanding  the  concen- 
tration of  the  highest  powers  of  manhood. 

The  social  spirit  in  worship  needs  to  be  cul-' 
tivated.     There   is   too   much   individualism   in 
our  congregations.     Men  go  to  church  for  hear- 
ing and  not  for  participation,  for  mental  interest, 
and  not  for  spiritual  fellowship. 

How  shall  the  social  element  in  worship  be 
promoted,  the  community  of  spirit  and  act  be 


The  Development  of  Free  Worship       IGl 

encouraged?  While  aiming  at  constant  growth, 
there  should  be  a  stable  element  in  worship. 
"Some  permanent  basis  in  every  form  of  wor- 
ship; something  of  the  old,  of  the  familiar,  of 
the  invariable;  some  worn  pathway  for  the  feet 
of  worshippers  to  tread  in."  And  this  will  touch 
the  tender  sentiments  of  men  and  unite  their 
hearts  in  sympathy;  for  there  is  a  power  in  old 
associations,  old  songs,  and  old  scenes.  The 
singing  of  the  Doxology,  the  repetition  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer  and  of  the  Apostles'  Creed,  and 
the  use  of  a  proper  proportion  of  old  and  new 
hymns  will  aid  the  fellowship  of  believers.  And 
their  hearty  use  of  the  forms  of  devotion  will 
make  the  worship  of  God  a  joyful  service  and 
attractive  to  a  larger  number  of  worshippers. 

Whatever  be  the  difficulties  to  the  worthy 
expression  of  free  worship  —  and  they  will  seem 
greater  with  years  of  service  —  we  need  not 
despair. 

We  can  do  more  for  the  spiritual  life  of  the 
Church  and  for  the  worship  of  God  in  the  Spirit 
by  freedom  in  worship  than  by  any  fixed  liturgy. 
"We  too  have  received  the  Holy  Ghost.  He 
did  not  forsake  the  Church  when  the  great  saints 
of  former  ages  passed  away;  and  if  we  rely  on  His 
inspirations,  and  devote  to  the  substance,  the 
spirit,  and  the  form  of  worship  the  thought  and 


162  Public  Worship 

care  which  they  ought  to  receive,"  worship  shall 
be  the  fitting  expression  of  the  religious  life  of 
the  Church,  and  channels  whereby  the  grace  of 
God  shall  come  more  richly  into  the  hearts  of 
men. 

"Public  worship  ought  to  be  comforting, 
joyful,  enthusiastic,  beautiful,  the  flower  of  all 
the  week,  but  its  chief  note  should  be  reverence 
and  godly  fear.  Praise  and  prayer,  the  reading 
of  Holy  Scripture,  and  the  preaching  of  the 
Evangel  should  conspire  to  lift  the  congregation 
above  the  present  world  and  the  sensible  atmos- 
phere in  which  they  have  been  living,  and  bring 
them  face  to  face  with  the  eternal.  It  was  this 
tender  and  gracious  fear  which  made  the  glory 
of  Puritan  faith  and  gave  visible  force  to  Puritan 
character. 

Nothing  is  more  urgently  needed  in  this  day, 
which  knows  how  to  doubt  and  jest,  but  is  for- 
getting how  to  revere  and  adore,  when  the  great 
function  of  worship  has  become  pleasing  and 
amusing,  a  performance  and  a  comedy.  What 
we  may  well  pray  for  is  a  baptism  into  our  fathers* 
penitent,  austere,  enduring  Christian  faith,  who 
summoned  themselves  hourly  to  the  judgment 
seat  of  Christ,  and  therefore  considered  it  a 
small  thing  to  be  judged  by  man's  judgment; 
who  never  met  in  the  Great  Name,  whether  in 


The  Developement  of  Free  Worship       US 

stately  cathedral  or  bare  hill  side,  but  they  came 
to  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect,  and  to 
Jesus,  the  Mediator  of  the  New  Covenant,  and 
to  God,  the  Judge  of  all."  (John  Watson,  **Cure 
of  Souls,"  p.  271.) 


BOOKS  ON  WORSHIP 

GENERAL 

"Christian  Worship. "     Richard  and  Painter. 
"  Worship. "     Published  by  the  Century  Co. 
"PubHc  Worship. "     Pattison. 

PRAYER 

"The  Prayers  of  the  Bible."     McFadyen. 
"  Extempore  Prayer. "     Tailing. 
"Anthology    of     Prayers    for     Public     Worship." 
United  Free  Church,  Scotland. 

SCRIPTURE 

"Literary  and  Vocal  Interpretation  of  the  Bible.'* 

Curry. 
"Use  of  the  Bible  in  Worship."     Hall. 
"Aids  to  Common  Worship."      Published    by    the 

Century  Co. 
"Responsive  Readings."     Henry  van  Dyke. 

HYMNS 

"History  and  Use  of  Hymns  and  Hymn  Tunes.*' 

Breed. 
"Musical  Ministries. "     Waldo  Pratt. 
"Music  in  the  Western  Church."     Dickinson. 

MANUALS 

"Book  of  Common  Order."     Church  of  Scotland. 
" New  Directory  for  Public  Worship.'*     United  Free 

Church,  Scotland. 
"Common  Worship."     Presbyterian  Church,  U.  S. 
"The     Common    Order    of    Morning    Worship." 

Hungerford. 


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